By the time the summer of 2007 rolled around, Dirk Nowitzki had received the ultimate basketball gut punch.
June 11th, 2006. A raucous Sunday night at the American Airlines Center saw the Dallas Mavericks defeat the Miami Heat 99-85 behind a 26 point, 16 rebound performance from Nowitzki in game 2 of the eventually infamous 2006 NBA Finals. The victory put the Mavs up 2-0 in the series as they headed to Miami for the mere formality of finishing off the Heat and claiming their first NBA championship.
Not so fast.
Even with a 13 point lead with just six minutes left in the 4th of game three, Dallas was unable to fully get their hands on the Larry O’Brien trophy. Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal rallied the Heat to win four consecutive games from Dallas and win the series 4-2. It was a heartbreaking defeat for Nowitzki, then-Mavs coach Avery Johnson and Mavs fans alike. But they would be back.
The Mavericks would scare themselves and their fans by beginning the 2006-2007 season with an 0-4 record before ultimately finishing 67-15. Along the way, they had four different win streaks of at least 8 games. They even had a 17 game winning streak between January 27th and March 11th. Their 67 wins on the season was, and still is, a franchise record and set them up with a dreamy number one seed for a deep playoff run. All they had to do was get past the 8th seeded Golden State Warriors who only made the playoffs by winning their last five regular season games to get to a 42-40 record.
Watch the above video if you dare, Mavs fans. It still really stings ten years later.
As the video and history will say, Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and other Warriors refused to miss from beyond the arc throughout the series and simply punked Dirk and the Mavs. A 42 win team taking out a 67 win team in a best of seven games series. It was the first time it has ever happened and it has only happened twice since (2011 #8 Memphis Grizzlies defeat #1 San Antonio Spurs and 2012 #8 Philadelphia 76ers defeat #1 Chicago Bulls).
Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks had seemed to have fought off the demons of their 2006 Finals collapse. They responded with a 67 win season. Basketball can be a real heartbreaker sometimes. Just a few weeks after their embarrassing first round exit, Nowitzki had to drag himself to face the world and accept his first and only league MVP award.
Back when the league handed out the MVP award in the middle of the playoffs, it wasn’t often that the recipient of the award would be at home watching the rest of the league battle for the championship. Instead, he had to answer questions about playoff failure and comfort his crying billionaire owner. It was a bittersweet moment for Nowitzki that might even represent the emotional low point of his NBA career.
Dirk had enough. The events of the previous twelve months just had pushed him over the edge and he was ready to get away. Dirk and his legendary shooting coach Holger Geschwinder headed to the land down under for a trip that has since been added to the Dirk Nowitzki lore.
According to this great article from the Dallas Observer ten years ago, it was a five week trip where he completely unplugged. He let his hair and beard grow way longer than the unprecedented length we saw during that tough 2012-2013 season where Nowitzki and a few teammates didn’t shave until the team got back to a .500 record.
The tough defeats he had been more fuel to the fire of media members constantly criticizing Nowitzki for his toughness or killer instinct that was critical to any truly elite player’s success. The time had him even wondering “Why is this happening to me?”
Why was it happening to Dirk? Was he really the type of player you could build a championship team around? Was he too soft? Even some of the most loyal Mavericks and Nowitzki fans were asking themselves these critical questions. Dirk has just finished his ninth NBA season. The honeymoon period of the early 2000’s where Dallas fans were just happy to have winning basketball was over. It was championship or bust and it was Nowitzki’s job to bring it to them.
The next few seasons weren’t able to quiet the speculation about Nowitzki’s ability to lead a championship caliber team. After the Mavs fell in the first round to Chris Paul, eventual teammate Tyson Chandler and the New Orleans Hornets, Dallas fired coach Avery Johnson and replaced him with Rick Carlisle. Key veteran pieces like Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and the aforementioned Chandler were added to the mix and Dallas developed an edge and veteran savvy the 2006 or 2007 teams could never dream of having.
When Dirk and the Mavs were eventually able to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy in June 2011, it erased all the pain of the past failures of Nowitzki-led Mavericks teams. For that moment in time, the Mavericks were the best team in basketball. History will always note that. Decades from now, that is the moment from Nowitzki’s career that will stand out the most.
It’s funny how much time can change everything. Ten years ago, Dirk Nowitzki was hiding out in the Australian desert to get away from the constant arrows of criticism that labeled him the soft European player who didn’t have what it took to get a team over the top. Now, in the twilight of his career, Nowitzki continues to rack up milestone after milestone as the angelic face of an NBA franchise. Passing players on the all-time scoring list that have been absolutely untouchable for so, so many All-Star caliber players that tried before him. The man is simply a legend. Not only in Dallas, but in the history of basketball.
Anything he does now is simply gravy on a legendary career, but it’s important to remember how dark it once was for Dirk Nowitzki. It only adds to legend and zest of this once-in-a-lifetime level talent Mavericks fans have been able to call their own for nearly two decades.
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