Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks weren't just the best team in basketball this year. They'll tell you in careful terms that they are, in fact, the rightful reigning champions -- but for a referee inspired coup d'etat. This season was not just a chance to play well and see what happens. The team had been wronged, and they had a certain taste in their mouth. They were on the hunt.
The NBA playoffs are a place for predators. This would be their jungle.
But there was that one little nagging worry. What if, everyone wondered, Dirk just isn't cut out for hunting?
The way things have gone down, now there is just too much evidence to support the theory that Dirk Nowitzki is prey.
The big moment of tonight? Matt Barnes dunking on his head. Yes, he was brilliant in the waning moments of Game 5. But in all four of Dallas's losses, Nowitzki -- hovering on the perimeter, unsure how to impose himself upon the game -- was the star disappointment. Recapping, with the help of the Associated Press
- Game 1: "The 7-foot Nowitzki was supposed to make it work, but he failed to take advantage of his size against a Golden State starting lineup featuring no one taller than 6-foot-9. He settled for outside shots early and was often frustrated by double- and triple-teams, with Nelson knowing better than anyone how much small, quick guys tend to bother the big German."
- Game 3: "Golden State's hustling defense somehow turned the probable league MVP into a bumbler or a bystander on most Dallas possessions."
- Game 4: "'Look in the locker room right now, and everybody is very disappointed,' said Dirk Nowitzki, who had 23 points and 15 rebounds in another less-than-valuable performance."
- Game 6: "Nowitzki missed his first eight shots, bricking consecutive 3-point tries late in the second quarter before hitting a 16-footer for his first basket of the game with 38 seconds left in the period."
People have a lot of complaints about NBA players. We have all heard them: They are about the money. They don't care. They don't work hard. They are hard to relate to. They don't smile enough. They are self-absorbed and don't care about others.
Dirk Nowitzki is what those people want. He's just as nice as people can be. He's honest. He does great, selfless things far from the limelight. And I am not one of those people who buys the notion that you can't be both nice off the court and a top competitor.
But Dirk Nowitzki, I fear, is about to be emasculated for, essentially, being a good person without a reliable way to beat long defenders who are much faster than him.
Lost in the shuffle is the notion that he is still one of the NBA's best players -- even during these miserable playoffs. As ESPN's John Hollinger points out (Insider), by a more sophisticated measure than the naked eye, Nowitzki has still outperformed all but a handful of NBA players, including Kobe Bryant. And his failing was a team one. Plenty of Mavericks underperformed -- almost bizarrely so. (I found myself pleading with my television for Avery Johnson to insert Maurice Ager or Austin Croshere, just because at least those guys appeared to have some energy.)
But as the star, the lauded MVP to be, Nowitzki will be the one to bear the burden of responsibility.
The playbook would call for a seven-footer, being guarded by the likes of Stephen Jackson, to take the smaller defender down near the hoop and work him over something good. But that's not what Nowitzki does, and he knows it. After being eliminated from the playoffs he was asked what the team needed to do to get better:
It would have helped if we'd had a low-post presence. I take a lot of that on myself. Probably the weakest part of my game right now.
Yup. Would have been good. And now, instead of a champion, Nowitzki is only, until further notice, a pretender.
I wonder how he'll feel, next week, when -- most likely -- he is summoned somewhere besides a Dallas home game to pick up the MVP trophy. It's a trophy he has earned. As much as he is in character fading from tough defensive schemes in these playoffs, he was also in character scoring 53 taking similar shots this time last year, and dominating all regular season long. The MVP is a regular season award, and this was his regular season.
But the more Nowitzki is lauded as the MVP, the more he is responsible for his team. And the more he is responsible for the team, the more he has disappointed. I wonder if that trophy will make him feel anything but worse. That little trophy, assuming he gets it, will be, in a perverse way, the precise reason someone somewhere is probably writing a column right now saying that Nowitzki should be traded.
If this becomes the first MVP trophy ever to be tossed off a bridge, I won't wonder why. It's hard enough being Dirk Nowitzki already. This is what he said a few hours ago, and I think he really means it:
"It's so disappointing you can't even describe it. You play your heart out for six or seven months and win 67 games. It really means nothing at this point. I really feel bad for the whole organization. The players, the coaches. ... This is really tough. A tough thing to swallow."
Crazy thought: what if he refused the award? It's not necessary by any means, and it would be a slap to the NBA. But it might be the surest way to pour water on the raging anti-Dirk sentiment that will dog him until he wins a championship.
