Tag: Dirk Nowitzki

75 greatest international players ever: The HoopsHype list

After the great success of our HoopsHype75 list, which absolutely no one disagreed with at all, we decided to put together another one focusing on the 75 greatest international players ever. This is a far more difficult exercise than the Top 75 NBA …

After the great success of our HoopsHype75 list, which absolutely no one disagreed with at all, we decided to put together another one focusing on the 75 greatest international players ever.

This is a far more difficult exercise than the Top 75 NBA players list. In that one, it was all legends. Here, after the actual stars on top, you’re often splitting hairs when picking one role player ahead of another and, on top of that, you have to evaluate how to rate FIBA luminaries who didn’t pan out all that well in the NBA or didn’t play in the league at all.

Though we factored in FIBA accomplishments some, we put way more stock on what players did while competing against the very best (that is, in the NBA). And, of course, the focus is on what they achieved and not what they could have done if A, B or C had happened. Facts over speculation.

As with our NBA75 list, we compiled votes from our staff, removed the highest and lowest rank for each player and awarded points 75-1 for the rest.

It was fun to put together.

Let’s jump in.

75 greatest international players ever: The HoopsHype list

After the great success of our HoopsHype75 list, which absolutely no one disagreed with at all, we decided to put together another one focusing on the 75 greatest international players ever.

This is a far more difficult exercise than the Top 75 NBA players list. In that one, it was all legends. Here, after the actual stars on top, you’re often splitting hairs when picking one role player ahead of another and, on top of that, you have to evaluate how to rate FIBA luminaries who didn’t pan out all that well in the NBA or didn’t play in the league at all.

Though we factored in FIBA accomplishments some, we put way more stock on what players did while competing against the very best (that is, in the NBA). And, of course, the focus is on what they achieved and not what they could have done if A, B or C had happened. Facts over speculation.

As with our NBA75 list, we compiled votes from our staff, removed the highest and lowest rank for each player and awarded points 75-1 for the rest.

It was fun to put together.

Let’s jump in.

Dallas Mavericks set to retire Dirk Nowitzki’s No. 41 jersey on Jan. 5 game against the Warriors

When the Warriors travel to Dallas on Jan. 5 for a game against the Mavs, NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki will be getting his No. 41 jersey retired.

When the Golden State Warriors travel to Dallas on Jan. 5 for a game against Luka Doncic and the Mavericks, the home team will honor one of its franchise legends at American Airlines Center.

On Friday, the Mavericks announced they will retire Dirk Nowitzki’s No. 41 jersey that day.

Via @dallasmavs on Twitter:

During his 21-season run with the Mavericks, Nowitzki averaged 20.7 points per game on 47.1% shooting from the field with 7.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per contest. When he retired from the game in 2019, Nowitzki was the franchise leader in points, games, rebounds, 3-pointers, blocks and more.

Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 15 playoff appearances, including an NBA championship run in 2011 past LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat.

The 7-foot German has a decorated list of awards that includes 14 NBA All-Star Game appearances, four All-NBA First Teams and a Most Valuable Player award in 2007.

After being named league MVP, Nowitzki’s Mavericks were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the No. 8 seed “We Believe” Warriors team led by Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Al Harrington, Matt Barnes, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson.

Tipoff between the Warriors and Mavericks is set for 4:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday, Jan. 5 in Dallas.

This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook! 

[lawrence-related id=46143,46094,46082]

[listicle id=46138]

[mm-video type=video id=01fmssrjwswhzez33zf3 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fmssrjwswhzez33zf3/01fmssrjwswhzez33zf3-16c0fc2a98a675c29195dfbb25d17f07.jpg]

Who were the teams that passed on Paul Pierce in the draft – and did they regret it?

Nine teams passed on The Truth on draft night in 1998; thanked in his Hoops Hall induction, which regretted it most?

When Boston Celtics Hall of Fame small forward Paul Pierce was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Kansas product made a point of thanking each and every team that passed on the Jayhawk standout who passed him over to take another prospect on draft night in 1998.

Explaining how he used the snub as motivation, Pierce said, “Coming out of college, I was a First Team All-American, a projected No. 2 pick,” continuing on by naming every franchise that doubted him. “Thank you for passing on me and adding fuel to my fire,” he explained. “I appreciate that.”

But who were those teams, and who did they go with instead? Let’s look back at the top nine picks of that draft, and whether there’s any that didn’t end up regretting their selection, in retrospect.

Rick Pitino was going to take Dirk Nowitzki before Paul Pierce fell in the 1998 NBA Draft

Former Boston Celtics head coach Rick Pitino was targeting Dirk Nowitzki before taking Paul Pierce in the 1998 draft, according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.

Soon-to-be-inducted Hall of Famer Paul Pierce was in Boston for 15 years, picking up All-Star appearances in 10 of those seasons. He never averaged less than 18 points per game save once while he was in Boston, in his rookie season. The Truth was, for all intents and purposes, a stud. He almost did not even come to Boston, as well, Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix wrote in his story on the Celtics’ legend Tuesday.

Before Pierce was drafted No. 10 overall in 1998, then-head coach Rick Pitino had been targeting Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki with the pick, he told Mannix. He went as far as telling Nowitzki to skip the draft combine and called up Red Auerbach, longtime Celtics head coach, to help seal the deal.

“I went home,” said Pitino, “thinking we had our guy.”

Dirk Nowitzki says LeBron James has case to be on NBA’s Mount Rushmore

Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki gave praise to LeBron James as one of the NBA’s greats.

Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki will be one of three players on NBA 2K22’s 75th Anniversary Edition, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kevin Durant on the cover.

Nowitzki played his entire 21-year career with the Mavericks and won a championship with the franchise in 2011. He was named the NBA Finals MVP that year.

That championship win came against LeBron James and the Miami Heat, who also boasted Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the roster.

James and Nowitzki had 32 matchups against each other during their time together in the league, so Nowitzki knew James’ game extremely well.

When asked about his NBA version of Mount Rushmore, which gave him a difficult time to pick from a pool of talented athletes, Nowitzki mentioned James’ name as a top choice.

“Yeah, I mean that’s, that’s so tough, too, there are so many great players,” Nowitzki said. “You know, obviously, Michael Jordan was always my No. 1 idol. I mean, and then it gets super tough. I mean, you know Magic [Johnson] is on there, to me Larry Bird. I’m a guy that’s obviously old school. I think LeBron [James] has a case to be on that Mount Rushmore, the way his body works, his championships and he’s still going. So, I mean that was tough.”

Nowitzki also gave a nod to Lakers’ legends Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

“Big man Shaq (O’Neal) obviously has a great case, so does Kobe (Bryant),” Nowitzki said. “I mean it’s that’s tough.”

NBA 2K22 is slated to release on Sept. 10. The 75th Anniversary Edition will cost $99.99 USD, and it will be available to purchase on all platforms, both old generation and current generation.

[pickup_prop id=”8031″]

[vertical-gallery id=41126]

[mm-video type=video id=01f9j18qk1sj8dp2n5vv playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f9j18qk1sj8dp2n5vv/01f9j18qk1sj8dp2n5vv-f3edca92f1529234f322b523e4bbe306.jpg]

Dirk Nowitzki honored that Sixers star Joel Embiid uses his signature move

NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki is honored that Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid uses his signature move.

Philadelphia 76ers star big man Joel Embiid is a student of the game. The big fella will study other players in order to add to those moves to his game whether it’s the footwork of Hakeem Olajuwon, the fadeaway by Kobe Bryant, or the legendary one-legged fadeaway from Dirk Nowitzki.

Nowitzki had a helluva career with that move as he was able to have so much success with that move being able to go to work in the post and carve out a Hall of Fame career. The move is recognized on the American Airlines Center court in Dallas with a silhouette of the shot on the Mavericks court.

Embiid has added that move to his game a bit over the course of his career and Nowitzki joined John Clark on the “Takeoff with John Clark” podcast to give his thoughts on Embiid using his move:

That’s an honor. That’s so sweet to see that he thinks that’s a good move and a shot he can put in his repertoire, so that’s fun to see. When they actually played here in Dallas, I watched some of the game and he texted me the day after and said, ‘I had to show respect to you and shoot in on your silhouette’. My silhouette is now on the Mavs floor and so he said he had to shoot one for me. So that made me, of course, feel really good. I’m honored that he thinks that’s a good shot to have.

The Sixers will benefit from having a guy as skilled as Embiid continue to add to his game. He is already a dominant big man and he is a 2021 MVP finalist, but at 27-years old, he still has a lot to add to his game and become an even better player.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[lawrence-related id=46326,46297,46301]

J.J. Barea says Dirk Nowitzki hated LeBron James’ Big 3 in Miami

It sounds like that 2011 NBA Finals was incredibly sweet for Nowitzki.

Dirk Nowitzki’s rivalry with LeBron James’ Miami Heat was apparently not friendly. J.J. Barea, a former Dallas Mavericks guard, provided some insight into how Nowitzki felt about James and the Big 3 in Miami.

“He hated Miami. He hated LeBron, (Dwyane) Wade, (Chris) Bosh,” Barea said on J.J. Reddick’s “The Old Man and the Three” podcast. “He’s never going to say that, but he couldn’t stand it.”

Nowitzki isn’t the only one who felt that way. It feels like much of the LeBron hate has faded in recent years, with the star establishing himself as one of the greatest and classiest players in history. But when LeBron abandoned the Cavaliers and made the announcement — you, of course, remember the disaster that was The Decision — he turned into a super villain, promising not one, not two, not three (and so on) championships.

Nowitzki and so many others didn’t love that group.

Surely, that made Nowitzki’s win in the 2011 NBA Finals especially sweet. Nowitzki stuck it to LeBron’s Big 3 — and he did it with an organization that Nowitzki called home for over 20 years.

[vertical-gallery id=977439]

Why Dirk Nowitzki may never join Steve Nash in Brooklyn

Don’t expect Dirk Nowitzki to ever make the move to Brooklyn to join Steve Nash in coaching the Nets.

When Steve Nash was officially named the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, it didn’t take long for the Dirk Nowitzki’s name to pop up in the assistant coaching conversation.

The two spent six years together in Dallas, as they took the Mavericks from being a bottom of the barrel team — which they were for almost all of the 90s — into a playoff team that made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals in 2002-03.

But while Nash is ready to take the next step in his post-playing life, Nowitzki has barely been able to enjoy retirement. The big man’s last year in the NBA was 2018-19 — which was a factor in Nowitzki not taking advantage of the opportunity to join Nash.

However, the future Hall of Famer told Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News there was another reason he didn’t join Nash — and may never if the Hall of Fame point guard keep his current job.

“I don’t know if I could do it anywhere but here. That’s of course first. Second, I just think the timing is not right. I love being with the family. I’m so over basketball at this point that it wasn’t even a thought for me.”