While I remain unconvinced the Mavericks will outlast their chief rivals in the march towards the Western playoffs, I cannot refute the impact of Dallas's win over Golden State Wednesday night. In terms both concrete and ethereal, the victory was monumental.
Everyone knows the ramifications on the win-loss ledger by now -- Dallas basically has a three-game lead on the Warriors when you consider tiebreakers. But there's a subplot a little lost in the resultant commendations: You cannot call Dirk Nowitzki soft any more.
The assertion was already absurd; Dirk's Mavs had won 67 games in a season, Dirk's Mavs had vanquished a healthy Spurs team in the playoffs, Dirk's Mavs had been to the NBA Finals. Dirk had missed only 21 games in eight flippin' seasons. Dirk had finished in the top 10 in MVP in last seven seasons, winning it last year. Dirk boasts career playoff per-game averages of 25 points and 11 rebounds. Dirk's team (on which he plays more minutes than anyone) has been in top half of the league in defensive rating every year (including this one) since 2004-05.
Dirk was not soft before he came back from a nasty high ankle sprain in less than two weeks' time (when the usual prognosis is at least a month). Hopefully, the attention from Dirk's miracle reanimation (and impending title run, perhaps?) will end all the nonsensical bashing of Nowitzki which has gone on too long.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2008 @ 5:50PM
nickstoli said...
Dork's gonna have to do it in the playoffs for the soft label to be dropped.
Thankfully, the one label that has been dropped for good is that Dork is Larry.
Never was, never will be. Peace.
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4-03-2008 @ 6:35PM
Dan said...
Hey Tom-
Dirk's ankle sprain was listed as mild to moderate and the recovery time for that is listed as two weeks according to several medical web sites I looked at.
So I still will label Dirk as soft until he can prove otherwise in the playoffs.
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4-03-2008 @ 6:42PM
Xavier said...
How do you spell Cotton? Dirk! Enough said.
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4-03-2008 @ 7:48PM
the cooker said...
Tom, how much did Cuban pay you to write this article??? Everybody knows that Dirk is a chocker come playoff time.
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4-03-2008 @ 9:17PM
JP26 said...
Tom,
Good post, and it was a long time coming. I would like to see any of the detractors come back and play with the kind of injuries he has sustained on the court.
Don't forget 2001 where Dirk got his teeth knocked out in a playoff game vs. the spurs came back in less than a minute and scored the rest of his 30 pts. to force Game 5. Or that Dirk's Mavs have been the only team in the last three years to beat the Spurs (this eras most dominant team) in a playoff series. The fact is that Dirk is a gamer, and we are lucky to watch him in the nba because his teams are consistently good, and he brings the effort night in and night out (which is more than you can say for alot of players).
The "Dirk is soft" contingent just repeat what they hear from Steven A. Smith on T.V. "He is soft, european, irk with no D, etc." These people are uninformed basketball fans. He has produced in the playoffs for many years--in fact, he has done alot more than most players have in the playoffs. I guess people just have a selective memory.
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4-03-2008 @ 11:20PM
PostmanE said...
I dropped Dirk Is Soft a while ago. I've long since moved on to Jai-ya.
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4-04-2008 @ 10:21AM
BilltheButcher said...
I was under the impression he earned the tag for colossal MENTAL breakdowns and lack of testicular fortitude in the PLAYOFFS. Overcoming PHYSICAL ailments in the REGULAR season should be expected, no? And your REGULAR season stat list is nice an all.. but it is REGULAR after all and notice the word playoffs didn't appear once.
Had this happened in the middle of a 7 game series he would be Reed, maybe.
VERDICT: KleenexMan Lives!
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4-04-2008 @ 12:47PM
aleksthethird said...
Is he soft or is he just not 'clutch'? Or is it really the same? So, is he mentally soft, but physically tough? How come that his two post-season 'breakdowns' make him 'soft', while other superstar's lack of post season success is, maybe, just destiny? Fact is that there are uncountable arguments that prove without a doubt that Dirk is one of the best, including PO statistics, clutch statistics, and demonstrations of shear willpower, yet the 'soft' label will probably always stick with him, because people like it that way. It's just a convenient, in a way.
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4-04-2008 @ 5:46PM
dave said...
sure. as long as we can drop the bruce bowen is dirty thing. tit for tat.
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4-04-2008 @ 8:56PM
Jason(Dallas) said...
Yeah averaging 25 pts and 11 rebounds in the playoffs is choking. YOU DIRK HATERS ARE IDIOTS!
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4-04-2008 @ 8:58PM
Jason(Dallas) said...
Dirk boasts career playoff per-game averages of 25 points and 11 rebounds.
Did anyone actually read the article?
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4-05-2008 @ 3:04PM
FLUXLAND said...
So what if he averages 25 and 11 in 3 and a half quarters? He is nowhere to be found in the clutch.
Indicate one time he has come up with a key play in the playoffs except for the dunk that took them to the Conference Finals. You can't cuz there isn't any.
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aleksthethird... what other players are you talking about and please enlighten me with Dirk's clutch statistics - I have to see this.. MAKE ME A BELIEVER,MAN! lol..
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4-06-2008 @ 5:33PM
aleksthethird said...
Other supposedly great players that are never called 'soft', but still with a remarkable lack of PO success: McGrady, Ming, McGrady, Ming, McGrady, Ming (hey, it's Texas). Note that I didn't mention the hard-ass Kobe who has never been out of the first round without a certain soft center.
Clutch statistics: Go back in time and get the PO clutch statistics from http://www.82games.com. Can't do that for you, dude, sorry. But Dirk is always near the top in those rankings.
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