Dirk Nowitzki?

[quote]WestCoast7 wrote:
He’s definitely a great player, I’d say top 15-25 all time. The only thing he’s missing is a ring, and it looks like he’ll have a great shot at one of those.
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I like this range, too. If you think about it, Dirk is probably the fourth best player of the last 10 years, behind Kobe, Duncan, and Shaq. And those three guys are Top 15 players all time.

If he doesn’t get a ring, I think he’s at least Top 25 based on his individual accomplishments, and the Mavericks being a perennial playoff team while he was there.

If he gets a ring, top 15, although close to the bottom of that top 15.

I don’t think the punk’d appearance makes him look bad at all…

[quote]TommyGunz32 wrote:

You ever seen the punkd with Dirk, makes him look terrible.

He does seem to have turned his attitude around and if they can continue this run it will drastically improve his resume/legacy. [/quote]

This:

http://lshinoda.buzznet.com/user/video/50945/dirk-nowitzki-punkd/

How did that make him look terrible at all? I thought he handled that ALOT nicer than most famous athletes would’ve.

lol I hadn’t seen it in years, I remembered it being much worse

my b

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]heavythrower wrote:
did not know there even was an nba thread. so forgive.

lots of good points… i really do not even follow basketball, but I thought of this thread when I was listening to the Dan Patrick radio show, when they were talking about how much hype, tv commercials, and MONEY Penny Hardaway made/had, and how his career was pretty average if not that, and how good Dirk is and how little attention he gets…

then I came across the ESPN article I linked above. [/quote]

To be fair, Penny’s career was derailed by major injuries. He would’ve probably been a first ballot HOF’er if he had remained healthy. He was putting up Clyde Drexler type numbers. Also, anyone who thinks Dirk is better than Kobe needs to have their head examined and clearly doesn’t know basketball.[/quote]

Agreed. Penny’s career started off ridiculously good before his knees fell apart. Not only should dirk not be compared to Kobe, but the Duncan comparisons are unjustified given Duncan’s championship pedigree. Yes, that finals series was certainly questionable, but he’s had 11 straight 50 win seasons to get back there and prove everyone wrong, and I think this might be his last year to have a chance (still don’t think they would beat the Heat in what seems to be the likely Final’s matchup). I think their improved defense is a big factor in their success this year too, and that’s not really Dirk’s contribution. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they lose in the Western finals. Plus, that first round exit after their 67-win season to Golden State was embarrassing and way worse than the Spurs’ exit this year. I think top 15-25 will be reasonable once he’s done.

[quote]overstand wrote:

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:

[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
Why he’s not marketable:

He’s not the kind of guy who gets on year end highlight reels or anything. Being able to do that is a BIG BIG BIG thing in sports, especially one like basketball.

See how Blake Griffin is already one of the leagues biggest stars? Highlight reel plays.

You know who’s had an even better career than Nowitzki with a similarly low public profile? Tim Duncan, arguably the second best player of the last decade right behind Kobe. Some may even say is the best. He also has a style of play that doesn’t make the highlight reel.

And today, where short clips get put on sports news, youtube, and commercial, having highlights is important.

And yeah, a lot of foreign players don’t excel at the excitement part of the game.

No it’s not because he’s white. The majority of the United States is white [for now :O]. If anything he’d have it easier–not that that is the case either. [/quote]

Great post.

I’ll add Karl Malone also didn’t get the fame and spotlight he deserved. The most fame he had was Jimmy Kimmel’s “I be Karl Malone” skit on the Man Show. I’d put him above Dirk and at least he’s brought his team to the finals unlike Nowitzki depite all the good Dallas teams over the years.
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Dirk took the Mavs to the NBA Finals in 2006, don’t know what sport you’ve been watching. They were up 2-0 on the Heat before David Stern and the refs stepped in. Dwane Wade shot more free throws that series than the entire Mavs team combined. That series is still controversial.

This is also why people call Dirk a choker when in reality he’s one of the best playoff performers of all time. Only 4 players to ever average 25 pts 10 rebounds in the playoffs are Hakeem, Elgin Baylor, Bob Pettit and Dirk.

And Whiteflash, I don’t know how you can still defend Kobe after they got swept. Even Colin Cowherd, biggest Lakers homer of all time, is jumping ship. He says Kobe is no longer capable of dominating games and leading a team. Bill Plaschke, 2nd biggest Lakers homer of all time, said something similar. We’ll see how he performs next season, a lot of this might be overreaction. But either way Dirk proved he is currently the better player. [/quote]

You’re really using Colin Cowherd to prove your point? Kobe Bryant averaged 25 a game this year on the fewest minutes since his 2nd season, and put up 36 in game against the Mavs before HIS TEAM quit on him. He also went 6-8 in the 1st quarter of game 4, but realized his team didn’t want to win so stopped scoring. Nowitzki didn’t prove a single thing to anyone who knows basketball, other than his team beat a Lakers team with a shit ton of internal problems. It’s funny how quick people are to jump off the bandwagon, and even funnier how quick they’ll jump right back on.