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[h=1]Bob Sturm 6h ago[/h] 19 in ’19 highlights the 19 most impactful Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks and Stars throughout the history of each franchise. Our staff voted on the top 19 from all four combined lists to create these overall rankings. You can find all of our team lists and profiles here.
For up to a decade, I suggested that we had better soak up as much of Dirk Nowitzki as we possibly could. Because when he left us as a full-time member of our DFW sports scene, there would never be another like him.
And now we are here.
The last two decades (and change) have been wonderful to behold. We are all lucky to have seen Dirk’s career unfold. Future generations will be jealous. Sure, it wasn’t always rosy around here, but that is a vital part of his journey. The process. The doubts. The certainty so many had in suggesting he wasn’t good enough to accomplish his mission.
It is a book, maybe two.
I once wanted to play in the NBA and held onto that dream until I was nearly old enough to drive. It turns out I was just as close to being a Jedi Knight as I was to making an NBA roster, but a kid is allowed to dream. Realism eventually tempered those dreams, and before long, I simply wanted to watch sports for a living. Inside that quest, I always thought I would want to write a book before it all ended.
The book would be about the greatest sports story I had ever seen, and as I was watching it, I knew that this was it. I knew the 2011 Mavericks were the story I would never witness again. The rise of Nowitzki that took him to the very top of the NBA in 2011 was a book that needed to be written so that nobody will ask in 15 years, “How was that not a book?” It may not have been heavily read by the masses, but it exists.
When The Athletic’s DFW managing editOr asked our staff to vote on the 19 most impactful athletes in the history of the city, he intentionally left the criteria open-ended. His questions were: To what extent did they affect their franchise? What impression did they leave with fans? How different is the sports landscape due to their presence?
There is no question this is a tough job. It may be the top sports debate one could have over a cold beverage with his buddies. Who would you place on DFW’s Sports Mount Rushmore (let’s call it Mount DFW) for all future generations to acknowledge?
As a 47-year old who has only lived here since 1998 (although quite aware of the sports world dating back to the 1970s), I am sure I have a different viewpoint from a 70-year old who has lived here all his life, or a 25-year old who has only been sports-conscious since about the year 2000. This is subjectivity at its finest and what makes sports the great debate topic that allows everyone to remain friends. (Sorry to our friends in politics and religion!)
I think my Mount Rushmore has been in place for over a decade and it would be pretty difficult to knock any of these legends off their perch. I would certainly have Nolan Ryan and Roger Staubach up there. Nolan’s presence is a little odd given how little he actually played in Dallas-Fort Worth (Houston can honor their own), but I do think he has to be on the shortlist considering what legends are made of and how well he represented what being a Texan at the highest level was like while having some of his very best moments in a Rangers uniform.
Staubach is also a no-brainer and a real-life American superhero. If you were to write about what makes Staubach so great and inspiring, it sort of feels fictional. But it certainly is not. Like Nowitzki, you are almost more proud of his character and conduct as a man and public figure than you are his actual accomplishments. I don’t say that to diminish his on-field achievements, which certainly include raising the biggest franchise in sports to its absurd levels of recognition and helping Tom Landry finally break through and become champions after being “next year’s champions” for so long. He is Captain Comeback, and he delivered so many times to intoxicate an entire generation with his accomplishments.
Somehow, my Mount DFW monument would have to figure out how to mold Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman all together into their own spot. This is clearly cheating on my part, but when I voted for this 19 in ’19 list and when we talk about the legends of this city, it always seems impossible to separate the triplets from each other. It is tough to say who could have accomplished the most on their own, but luckily, we never had to find out. I think you could argue that era’s Cowboys could compete with any dynasty from any time in history and hold their own quite nicely. They didn’t just win those three Super Bowls, they crushed the league in doing so with hardly a competitive playoff game during that stretch. Aside from the trip to San Francisco and that uncalled pass interference penalty on Deion Sanders, the Cowboys destroyed every postseason opponent in their path by double digits for four straight seasons. Unreal.
For a while, as Dirk was rising through his career but still “just a nice player,” I figured Mike Modano, who himself was capturing the imagination of this city with some unforgettable Stanley Cup runs, would earn the final spot. But plenty has changed in the last 15 to 20 years that simply suggests that Modano will probably join Bob Lilly, Pudge Rodriguez and a few others on the outside looking in.
Because it is obvious that Dirk completes Mount DFW with Nolan, Roger and the Triplets. I honestly don’t know how we could come to any other conclusion.
Now, it is highly possible that many readers strongly disagree with the mere premise that anyone could possibly be on this list above a Dallas Cowboys hero. Surely, nothing is bigger than the Cowboys, and second place isn’t even close. How dare you guys rank a basketball player over any number of Cowboys legends?
I understand the argument. Trust me, as someone who has spent every day for a few decades covering the most popular team in the land, the point is not lost on me. If we were discussing the most impactful franchise, this is a no-brainer.
But this is about an individual impact and how one personally made a massive difference that exceeds any other. One in which the merits should not be attached to a collective ensemble cast. What did this guy do that was able to elevate everything around him, in some ways on his own? How many athletes are so imperative to the entire history book of a franchise? Nowitzki isn’t one of the cornerstones of the Dallas NBA franchise. He may be nearly all of them.
What would possibly elevate Dirk to the very top of that mountain and all the way to No. 1 on our entire list, past all of the other legends listed before him? I am certainly happy you asked me that. [HR][/HR]
When Dirk Nowitzki played his first game in the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks were in the running for the NBA’s worst franchise. The Mavericks broke .500 just six times in their first 18 professional seasons, won 45 games only three times and cracked 50 wins in a season just twice. There were a couple of fun years in the 80’s, but success clearly was not sustainable. The first two decades of the NBA in Dallas were pretty unremarkable.
The franchise had played nearly 1500 regular-season games yet had won fewer than 600 of them. The team’s all-time winning percentage was under .400. This is the equivalent of a 32-50 season in every single year of existence. The postseason featured four series wins in two decades and a single series victory outside of the opening round (in the second round over Denver in 1988).
It would certainly be impossible to credit a dramatic franchise turnaround entirely to Nowitzki. Basketball is, in fact, a team sport with many hands helping. But we might also concede that basketball is the one sport where one guy can often turn the fortunes of so many by sheer, unstoppable greatness, and that is what we saw for the next 21 seasons with Nowitzki. Now, surely, at the tail end of those 21 years, the greatness was dissipating. The team was even openly tanking. But the transformation from a joke of a franchise to a legitimate contender for years and years was clear.
During the balance of Nowitzki’s career, we saw the Mavericks play 1,674 regular-season games and win 987 of them, for a winning percentage of .590 and an average annual record of 48-34. Subtract the last three years, during which Nowitzki was 38-40 and his body unavailable for a huge amount of games, and the number gets even more insane: 897-531, for a winning percentage of 63% and an average season record of 52-30.
That is correct. In 18 seasons before Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks were, on average, 32-50. In the first 18 years of his career, that number transformed to 52-30. The sports world increasingly relies on “With Or Without You” stats (WOWY) and this one is pretty clear. With him, the Mavericks were always in the mix. Without him, they seldom were. He carried them. In fact, he built them and then carried them. Find me another athlete in sports who was able to transform a franchise to that extent and for that amount of time. This is what separates him from the others on Mount DFW. It wasn’t necessarily about personal achievements, although he can do that all day if you wish. It is about finding a figure who can prop up a completely doomed organization. Postseason play is a perpetual reality with him and barely a fantasy without him. No disrespect to the Cowboys on this list, but with the number of legends that franchise has produced, we could argue that the team’s history would still be pretty great even with the subtraction of any one of them. How big is Staubach without Lilly and friends dragging them to the level when Roger joined up? How great is Aikman if not with Emmitt and Irvin? But if you subtract Dirk from the Mavericks, what is left?
Let’s not forget the postseason achievements during his run. The Mavericks claimed 15 postseason berths in 16 years and a phenomenal 13 series wins, which included two Western Conference Finals wins and the big one, the 2011 NBA Finals.
Let’s discuss the big one. Again, it was book-worthy and the details were too many to write in a short-form format. But the Mavericks’ title win was unthinkable and the true top of the mountain for a franchise that could never ponder such a thing. Furthermore, it came against a Western Conference road that required them to navigate the defending two-time champion Los Angeles Lakers with Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant (keeping Jackson from his fourth different three-peat), then an upstart Oklahoma City Thunder squad with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden and, of course, the final showdown with the self-appointed Three Kings in Miami.
I don’t want to get lost in the “who they beat” rabbit hole every single time this topic comes up, but it is difficult to resist. I must admit beating that Miami team for a title after the 2006 Finals went like they did – the slander Dirk had to endure and then the rebuild like a Hollywood script – to run into them again with Dwyane Wade’s new friend LeBron makes it even better. It just does.
On top of that, of course, was Dirk’s illness in Game 4 and the enduring memory of the bullies on the other side mocking him behind his back. That was how it went for much of Dirk’s career. Mocked because he was from Germany. Mocked because he was another European model trying to figure out the NBA. Mocked because he was soft. Now, he was mocked because he was coughing. He still wasn’t in the NBA’s Cool Club; that much was obvious.
There is something poetic about getting one over on the bullies. There is something perfect about beating the team that beat you five years earlier and finally making things right. That whole series was like a referendum on team basketball and whether a team without a group of superstars could beat one with a group of superstars by outlasting them in a duel of will and skill. The Mavericks in 2011 were a wonder. Their roster combined for 109 years of ring-less basketball — something that blew away the next-closest total of a champion by more than 40 years. Jason Kidd had 16 years, Dirk and Peja Stojakovic each had 12, Jason Terry and Shawn Marion had 11, Deshawn Stephenson and Brian Cardinal each had 10 years, Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood both had 9, with JJ Barea at 4, Corey Brewer 3, and Ian Mahinmi 2. Those 12 players also combined for a staggering 362 years of combined age. This was an over-the-hill gang unlike anything the NBA had ever seen, and they were all about to exit stage left without their celebration if it wasn’t right here and right now.
Not only that, but Dirk joined quite a group of all-time greats — Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West — as the four players to score at least 22,000 points before winning their title. He had to wait a long time and put in some unbelievable years of trial and error before it finally fell in place for him. We don’t realize how close he was to becoming the greatest player “never to win the big one,” because he finished the job.
And even that was perfect in so many ways. I have two pictures from those 2011 Finals hanging in my office, and I look at them all the time. One was taken at the end of Game 2, the other at the end of Game 4. I am sure many people have pictures from the end of Game 6 and the trophy celebration – Dirk has that one in own his house – but these two pictures are the story for me.
Here is the first one:
(Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
This was the final dagger in that vital Game 2 win. Just look at that follow-through and the thousands of hours in the gym, hoisting a million shots to get to that one moment in time. It was his. Then look at all the terrified Miami fans who knew that shot was good. The legendary shot first required one of the many comebacks in that playoff run because the Mavericks were down 15 with 7:13 to play after Dwyane Wade hit a 3-pointer and struck a pose in front of the Dallas bench. Miami would only get one more hoop through the rest of the game, and Dallas would go on a remarkable 22-5 run to finish it out. Down the stretch, Dirk turned the game by hitting all four of his shots in the final three minutes. With the game tied 90-90, this shot pictured above silenced the Miami arena with such brilliant defiance that the building seemed empty.
Brian Cardinal will never forget that shot. “For Dirk to have the nuts to take that shot and to knock it down was just remarkable,” he said. “The whole bench was holding each other back, and when he knocked it down it was pandemonium on our bench, as the arena is motionless. The range of emotions was just unreal.”
Mario Chalmers would hit the only Miami basket of that stretch to tie the game until Dirk then drove on Chris Bosh to finish a game Dallas simply had to have with a glorious left-handed hoop for the win. The series was tied 1-1.
Here is the second picture:
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
I love this picture so much. Dirk is looking at the game clock and the shot clock at the other end of the arena with Udonis Haslem on his hip. This is the flu game, when he played with a fever of 102 degrees. He played poorly but courageously for much of the night. He was a mess, coughing and wheezing throughout. He was seen shivering during timeouts.
But Dirk did what he always would do down the stretch of Game 4 when the Mavericks needed him most. He was awesome through adversity on this night, the same night Lebron James scored all of eight points in his personal battle with Jason Terry. He scored 10 of his 21 in the fourth quarter, and one of the most critical moments would happen about eight seconds after this photo was snapped. This moment could determine his title dream either way. He would spin for yet another drive. In Game 2, it was with the left hand. In Game 4, it was a finish with his right hand.
This was the moment it became clear the Mavs were not going to go quietly into the night. They lost and then answered in Miami. They then lost and answered again in Dallas. Every time they were punched, they punched back harder. It was now 2-2, and the series was turning because Dallas was growing in confidence and tactics, while the newly formed Heat saw far more questions than answers. Their frustration and doubt were the only things growing.
Five days later, after Dirk and Jet and the rest of the talented cast took turns making key plays in Games 5 and 6, the Mavericks would hoist the trophy and Nowitzki would finish his journey to the top. Basketball immortality was his. The fairy tale was complete. Not only did he make it to the Finals, but he did it as the clear best player on a team with many complementary parts. Then, during that entire two-month title run, he played his best basketball and was the hero over and over again. This was the run that elevated him into an all-new level of excellence among his peers. He was treated differently and granted the respect he deserved across the basketball universe almost instantly. He finally earned what he was not given.
For years and years, people told us this man could never reach the top and win a title. The fact he did on his own terms without ever taking a shortcut in a sport where shortcuts are now commonplace makes it all that much better. I will never forget seeing a photograph of a huge Nike mural in Germany after the title, with Nowitzki raising his hands in victory. The caption was written in German: “Alle Traume Klingen Verruckt. Bis Sie Wahr Werden.” I think the translation is perfect for anyone who ever dared to dream about Dirk and the Mavericks finally having their day in the sun if everything ever broke right:
“All dreams sound crazy. Until they become true.”
This dream came true. [HR][/HR]
I certainly make no apologies or excuses for voting Dirk as the most impactful athlete in Dallas-Fort Worth history (despite football being the dominant sport and the Cowboys being the dominant franchise in this area). He has set what I might consider an impossible bar for anyone to ever attain in the future.
But, like so many who are lucky enough to know him on some level, I would argue that the public performer is only part of the story.
Like so many on this list, he is a tremendous human being. The character he always showed has seen him best described as a superstar who doesn’t act like one. This is true in terms of his conduct as an NBA legend: He never leveraged his talents to make an organization bow to his bidding, nor did he force franchises to bend the knee in hopes of gaining his affection. He never pushed a franchise to do things his way or else. He never courted ten teams to see who could give him the best presentation so that he (and his sizable team and entourage) could be wowed.
He didn’t really have a personal team, much less an entourage. Or even an agent to hide behind. Or a hidden agenda that would remain mysterious. I am not here to suggest it is always the most beneficial way to try to fix your circumstances to ensure the highest likelihood of success. Some would argue that he never should have taken less money than he could get, that he should have demanded more from Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson after the title so as not to “waste the remainder of his career.” But Dirk was always going to be Dirk. And as Dirk, he would never be confused for a diva.
Expecting his successors to follow his lead is a great idea but terribly unrealistic. They don’t make them like Dirk in the basketball factory. Players are power brokers who clearly control the league, now more than ever. Dirk had that power and never felt comfortable turning into something he wasn’t. He was a basketball player who wanted to win, but he was also self-aware enough to know that every power move one makes affects huge masses of other people. He always seemed interested in not letting those people down. That group includes us, Dallas sports fans. Other athletes may not care if they disappoint a group of their loyalists to go start a new chapter elsewhere. I don’t think Dirk ever wanted to do that and let his fans down. And that is noteworthy and worthy of praise on a list like this.
Then, to drill down even further, his personal conduct set him apart. This is different than the last topic because there, the whole world is watching. What about when they aren’t? What about when a child or a total stranger gets his one chance to interact with Dirk in private? I have seen Dirk handle this with amazing class on enough occasions to know that he has never lost sight of his influence and impact. He knows those five seconds will mean the world to the person on the other side of the moment, and he always wanted to get it right.
These were the reasons for the bond between this city and this man. Other men may hit tough shots in big games. But will anyone ever love the city back and never want to leave it, even though he was from the other side of the globe?
This is not to say that others on this list aren’t remarkable as well. But I know we will never see anyone like Dirk Nowitzki again. And I feel privileged to have witnessed the entire ride from a relatively close vicinity.
We should all feel privileged to have him represent our town like he has. He played 21 seasons with all his heart, gave us every ounce his body had to give, brought us a title we will never forget and conducted himself in a way that is more than worthy of the statue they will soon build.
There is only one Dirk Nowitzki. He is the most impactful athlete this city will ever know.
For up to a decade, I suggested that we had better soak up as much of Dirk Nowitzki as we possibly could. Because when he left us as a full-time member of our DFW sports scene, there would never be another like him.
And now we are here.
The last two decades (and change) have been wonderful to behold. We are all lucky to have seen Dirk’s career unfold. Future generations will be jealous. Sure, it wasn’t always rosy around here, but that is a vital part of his journey. The process. The doubts. The certainty so many had in suggesting he wasn’t good enough to accomplish his mission.
It is a book, maybe two.
I once wanted to play in the NBA and held onto that dream until I was nearly old enough to drive. It turns out I was just as close to being a Jedi Knight as I was to making an NBA roster, but a kid is allowed to dream. Realism eventually tempered those dreams, and before long, I simply wanted to watch sports for a living. Inside that quest, I always thought I would want to write a book before it all ended.
The book would be about the greatest sports story I had ever seen, and as I was watching it, I knew that this was it. I knew the 2011 Mavericks were the story I would never witness again. The rise of Nowitzki that took him to the very top of the NBA in 2011 was a book that needed to be written so that nobody will ask in 15 years, “How was that not a book?” It may not have been heavily read by the masses, but it exists.
When The Athletic’s DFW managing editOr asked our staff to vote on the 19 most impactful athletes in the history of the city, he intentionally left the criteria open-ended. His questions were: To what extent did they affect their franchise? What impression did they leave with fans? How different is the sports landscape due to their presence?
There is no question this is a tough job. It may be the top sports debate one could have over a cold beverage with his buddies. Who would you place on DFW’s Sports Mount Rushmore (let’s call it Mount DFW) for all future generations to acknowledge?
As a 47-year old who has only lived here since 1998 (although quite aware of the sports world dating back to the 1970s), I am sure I have a different viewpoint from a 70-year old who has lived here all his life, or a 25-year old who has only been sports-conscious since about the year 2000. This is subjectivity at its finest and what makes sports the great debate topic that allows everyone to remain friends. (Sorry to our friends in politics and religion!)
I think my Mount Rushmore has been in place for over a decade and it would be pretty difficult to knock any of these legends off their perch. I would certainly have Nolan Ryan and Roger Staubach up there. Nolan’s presence is a little odd given how little he actually played in Dallas-Fort Worth (Houston can honor their own), but I do think he has to be on the shortlist considering what legends are made of and how well he represented what being a Texan at the highest level was like while having some of his very best moments in a Rangers uniform.
Staubach is also a no-brainer and a real-life American superhero. If you were to write about what makes Staubach so great and inspiring, it sort of feels fictional. But it certainly is not. Like Nowitzki, you are almost more proud of his character and conduct as a man and public figure than you are his actual accomplishments. I don’t say that to diminish his on-field achievements, which certainly include raising the biggest franchise in sports to its absurd levels of recognition and helping Tom Landry finally break through and become champions after being “next year’s champions” for so long. He is Captain Comeback, and he delivered so many times to intoxicate an entire generation with his accomplishments.
Somehow, my Mount DFW monument would have to figure out how to mold Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman all together into their own spot. This is clearly cheating on my part, but when I voted for this 19 in ’19 list and when we talk about the legends of this city, it always seems impossible to separate the triplets from each other. It is tough to say who could have accomplished the most on their own, but luckily, we never had to find out. I think you could argue that era’s Cowboys could compete with any dynasty from any time in history and hold their own quite nicely. They didn’t just win those three Super Bowls, they crushed the league in doing so with hardly a competitive playoff game during that stretch. Aside from the trip to San Francisco and that uncalled pass interference penalty on Deion Sanders, the Cowboys destroyed every postseason opponent in their path by double digits for four straight seasons. Unreal.
For a while, as Dirk was rising through his career but still “just a nice player,” I figured Mike Modano, who himself was capturing the imagination of this city with some unforgettable Stanley Cup runs, would earn the final spot. But plenty has changed in the last 15 to 20 years that simply suggests that Modano will probably join Bob Lilly, Pudge Rodriguez and a few others on the outside looking in.
Because it is obvious that Dirk completes Mount DFW with Nolan, Roger and the Triplets. I honestly don’t know how we could come to any other conclusion.
Now, it is highly possible that many readers strongly disagree with the mere premise that anyone could possibly be on this list above a Dallas Cowboys hero. Surely, nothing is bigger than the Cowboys, and second place isn’t even close. How dare you guys rank a basketball player over any number of Cowboys legends?
I understand the argument. Trust me, as someone who has spent every day for a few decades covering the most popular team in the land, the point is not lost on me. If we were discussing the most impactful franchise, this is a no-brainer.
But this is about an individual impact and how one personally made a massive difference that exceeds any other. One in which the merits should not be attached to a collective ensemble cast. What did this guy do that was able to elevate everything around him, in some ways on his own? How many athletes are so imperative to the entire history book of a franchise? Nowitzki isn’t one of the cornerstones of the Dallas NBA franchise. He may be nearly all of them.
What would possibly elevate Dirk to the very top of that mountain and all the way to No. 1 on our entire list, past all of the other legends listed before him? I am certainly happy you asked me that. [HR][/HR]
When Dirk Nowitzki played his first game in the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks were in the running for the NBA’s worst franchise. The Mavericks broke .500 just six times in their first 18 professional seasons, won 45 games only three times and cracked 50 wins in a season just twice. There were a couple of fun years in the 80’s, but success clearly was not sustainable. The first two decades of the NBA in Dallas were pretty unremarkable.
The franchise had played nearly 1500 regular-season games yet had won fewer than 600 of them. The team’s all-time winning percentage was under .400. This is the equivalent of a 32-50 season in every single year of existence. The postseason featured four series wins in two decades and a single series victory outside of the opening round (in the second round over Denver in 1988).
It would certainly be impossible to credit a dramatic franchise turnaround entirely to Nowitzki. Basketball is, in fact, a team sport with many hands helping. But we might also concede that basketball is the one sport where one guy can often turn the fortunes of so many by sheer, unstoppable greatness, and that is what we saw for the next 21 seasons with Nowitzki. Now, surely, at the tail end of those 21 years, the greatness was dissipating. The team was even openly tanking. But the transformation from a joke of a franchise to a legitimate contender for years and years was clear.
During the balance of Nowitzki’s career, we saw the Mavericks play 1,674 regular-season games and win 987 of them, for a winning percentage of .590 and an average annual record of 48-34. Subtract the last three years, during which Nowitzki was 38-40 and his body unavailable for a huge amount of games, and the number gets even more insane: 897-531, for a winning percentage of 63% and an average season record of 52-30.
That is correct. In 18 seasons before Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks were, on average, 32-50. In the first 18 years of his career, that number transformed to 52-30. The sports world increasingly relies on “With Or Without You” stats (WOWY) and this one is pretty clear. With him, the Mavericks were always in the mix. Without him, they seldom were. He carried them. In fact, he built them and then carried them. Find me another athlete in sports who was able to transform a franchise to that extent and for that amount of time. This is what separates him from the others on Mount DFW. It wasn’t necessarily about personal achievements, although he can do that all day if you wish. It is about finding a figure who can prop up a completely doomed organization. Postseason play is a perpetual reality with him and barely a fantasy without him. No disrespect to the Cowboys on this list, but with the number of legends that franchise has produced, we could argue that the team’s history would still be pretty great even with the subtraction of any one of them. How big is Staubach without Lilly and friends dragging them to the level when Roger joined up? How great is Aikman if not with Emmitt and Irvin? But if you subtract Dirk from the Mavericks, what is left?
Let’s not forget the postseason achievements during his run. The Mavericks claimed 15 postseason berths in 16 years and a phenomenal 13 series wins, which included two Western Conference Finals wins and the big one, the 2011 NBA Finals.
Let’s discuss the big one. Again, it was book-worthy and the details were too many to write in a short-form format. But the Mavericks’ title win was unthinkable and the true top of the mountain for a franchise that could never ponder such a thing. Furthermore, it came against a Western Conference road that required them to navigate the defending two-time champion Los Angeles Lakers with Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant (keeping Jackson from his fourth different three-peat), then an upstart Oklahoma City Thunder squad with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden and, of course, the final showdown with the self-appointed Three Kings in Miami.
I don’t want to get lost in the “who they beat” rabbit hole every single time this topic comes up, but it is difficult to resist. I must admit beating that Miami team for a title after the 2006 Finals went like they did – the slander Dirk had to endure and then the rebuild like a Hollywood script – to run into them again with Dwyane Wade’s new friend LeBron makes it even better. It just does.
On top of that, of course, was Dirk’s illness in Game 4 and the enduring memory of the bullies on the other side mocking him behind his back. That was how it went for much of Dirk’s career. Mocked because he was from Germany. Mocked because he was another European model trying to figure out the NBA. Mocked because he was soft. Now, he was mocked because he was coughing. He still wasn’t in the NBA’s Cool Club; that much was obvious.
There is something poetic about getting one over on the bullies. There is something perfect about beating the team that beat you five years earlier and finally making things right. That whole series was like a referendum on team basketball and whether a team without a group of superstars could beat one with a group of superstars by outlasting them in a duel of will and skill. The Mavericks in 2011 were a wonder. Their roster combined for 109 years of ring-less basketball — something that blew away the next-closest total of a champion by more than 40 years. Jason Kidd had 16 years, Dirk and Peja Stojakovic each had 12, Jason Terry and Shawn Marion had 11, Deshawn Stephenson and Brian Cardinal each had 10 years, Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood both had 9, with JJ Barea at 4, Corey Brewer 3, and Ian Mahinmi 2. Those 12 players also combined for a staggering 362 years of combined age. This was an over-the-hill gang unlike anything the NBA had ever seen, and they were all about to exit stage left without their celebration if it wasn’t right here and right now.
Not only that, but Dirk joined quite a group of all-time greats — Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West — as the four players to score at least 22,000 points before winning their title. He had to wait a long time and put in some unbelievable years of trial and error before it finally fell in place for him. We don’t realize how close he was to becoming the greatest player “never to win the big one,” because he finished the job.
And even that was perfect in so many ways. I have two pictures from those 2011 Finals hanging in my office, and I look at them all the time. One was taken at the end of Game 2, the other at the end of Game 4. I am sure many people have pictures from the end of Game 6 and the trophy celebration – Dirk has that one in own his house – but these two pictures are the story for me.
Here is the first one:
(Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
This was the final dagger in that vital Game 2 win. Just look at that follow-through and the thousands of hours in the gym, hoisting a million shots to get to that one moment in time. It was his. Then look at all the terrified Miami fans who knew that shot was good. The legendary shot first required one of the many comebacks in that playoff run because the Mavericks were down 15 with 7:13 to play after Dwyane Wade hit a 3-pointer and struck a pose in front of the Dallas bench. Miami would only get one more hoop through the rest of the game, and Dallas would go on a remarkable 22-5 run to finish it out. Down the stretch, Dirk turned the game by hitting all four of his shots in the final three minutes. With the game tied 90-90, this shot pictured above silenced the Miami arena with such brilliant defiance that the building seemed empty.
Brian Cardinal will never forget that shot. “For Dirk to have the nuts to take that shot and to knock it down was just remarkable,” he said. “The whole bench was holding each other back, and when he knocked it down it was pandemonium on our bench, as the arena is motionless. The range of emotions was just unreal.”
Mario Chalmers would hit the only Miami basket of that stretch to tie the game until Dirk then drove on Chris Bosh to finish a game Dallas simply had to have with a glorious left-handed hoop for the win. The series was tied 1-1.
Here is the second picture:
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
I love this picture so much. Dirk is looking at the game clock and the shot clock at the other end of the arena with Udonis Haslem on his hip. This is the flu game, when he played with a fever of 102 degrees. He played poorly but courageously for much of the night. He was a mess, coughing and wheezing throughout. He was seen shivering during timeouts.
But Dirk did what he always would do down the stretch of Game 4 when the Mavericks needed him most. He was awesome through adversity on this night, the same night Lebron James scored all of eight points in his personal battle with Jason Terry. He scored 10 of his 21 in the fourth quarter, and one of the most critical moments would happen about eight seconds after this photo was snapped. This moment could determine his title dream either way. He would spin for yet another drive. In Game 2, it was with the left hand. In Game 4, it was a finish with his right hand.
This was the moment it became clear the Mavs were not going to go quietly into the night. They lost and then answered in Miami. They then lost and answered again in Dallas. Every time they were punched, they punched back harder. It was now 2-2, and the series was turning because Dallas was growing in confidence and tactics, while the newly formed Heat saw far more questions than answers. Their frustration and doubt were the only things growing.
Five days later, after Dirk and Jet and the rest of the talented cast took turns making key plays in Games 5 and 6, the Mavericks would hoist the trophy and Nowitzki would finish his journey to the top. Basketball immortality was his. The fairy tale was complete. Not only did he make it to the Finals, but he did it as the clear best player on a team with many complementary parts. Then, during that entire two-month title run, he played his best basketball and was the hero over and over again. This was the run that elevated him into an all-new level of excellence among his peers. He was treated differently and granted the respect he deserved across the basketball universe almost instantly. He finally earned what he was not given.
For years and years, people told us this man could never reach the top and win a title. The fact he did on his own terms without ever taking a shortcut in a sport where shortcuts are now commonplace makes it all that much better. I will never forget seeing a photograph of a huge Nike mural in Germany after the title, with Nowitzki raising his hands in victory. The caption was written in German: “Alle Traume Klingen Verruckt. Bis Sie Wahr Werden.” I think the translation is perfect for anyone who ever dared to dream about Dirk and the Mavericks finally having their day in the sun if everything ever broke right:
“All dreams sound crazy. Until they become true.”
This dream came true. [HR][/HR]
I certainly make no apologies or excuses for voting Dirk as the most impactful athlete in Dallas-Fort Worth history (despite football being the dominant sport and the Cowboys being the dominant franchise in this area). He has set what I might consider an impossible bar for anyone to ever attain in the future.
But, like so many who are lucky enough to know him on some level, I would argue that the public performer is only part of the story.
Like so many on this list, he is a tremendous human being. The character he always showed has seen him best described as a superstar who doesn’t act like one. This is true in terms of his conduct as an NBA legend: He never leveraged his talents to make an organization bow to his bidding, nor did he force franchises to bend the knee in hopes of gaining his affection. He never pushed a franchise to do things his way or else. He never courted ten teams to see who could give him the best presentation so that he (and his sizable team and entourage) could be wowed.
He didn’t really have a personal team, much less an entourage. Or even an agent to hide behind. Or a hidden agenda that would remain mysterious. I am not here to suggest it is always the most beneficial way to try to fix your circumstances to ensure the highest likelihood of success. Some would argue that he never should have taken less money than he could get, that he should have demanded more from Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson after the title so as not to “waste the remainder of his career.” But Dirk was always going to be Dirk. And as Dirk, he would never be confused for a diva.
Expecting his successors to follow his lead is a great idea but terribly unrealistic. They don’t make them like Dirk in the basketball factory. Players are power brokers who clearly control the league, now more than ever. Dirk had that power and never felt comfortable turning into something he wasn’t. He was a basketball player who wanted to win, but he was also self-aware enough to know that every power move one makes affects huge masses of other people. He always seemed interested in not letting those people down. That group includes us, Dallas sports fans. Other athletes may not care if they disappoint a group of their loyalists to go start a new chapter elsewhere. I don’t think Dirk ever wanted to do that and let his fans down. And that is noteworthy and worthy of praise on a list like this.
Then, to drill down even further, his personal conduct set him apart. This is different than the last topic because there, the whole world is watching. What about when they aren’t? What about when a child or a total stranger gets his one chance to interact with Dirk in private? I have seen Dirk handle this with amazing class on enough occasions to know that he has never lost sight of his influence and impact. He knows those five seconds will mean the world to the person on the other side of the moment, and he always wanted to get it right.
These were the reasons for the bond between this city and this man. Other men may hit tough shots in big games. But will anyone ever love the city back and never want to leave it, even though he was from the other side of the globe?
This is not to say that others on this list aren’t remarkable as well. But I know we will never see anyone like Dirk Nowitzki again. And I feel privileged to have witnessed the entire ride from a relatively close vicinity.
We should all feel privileged to have him represent our town like he has. He played 21 seasons with all his heart, gave us every ounce his body had to give, brought us a title we will never forget and conducted himself in a way that is more than worthy of the statue they will soon build.
There is only one Dirk Nowitzki. He is the most impactful athlete this city will ever know.
