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Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest players in NBA history. He’s a champion. An MVP. An MVP of the final. He’s a 14-time All-Star, 12-time All-NBA selection and the league’s sixth all-time top scorer. But perhaps the most respected, or at least the most endearing number on Dirk’s career resume, is one.
As in, he played for a franchise.
Dirk stayed with the Dallas Mavericks for 21 seasons, and when he won that championship in 2011, it was different from the titles a lot of these guys get playing music franchises until they land on a winner. It was a title that the NBA community as a whole celebrated.
The Mavericks, of course, won that title against the Miami Heat in the first season of the infamous Big 3 together. It was one of the most hated teams in history, turning universally revered LeBron James into a villain. According to his former teammate JJ Barea, Nowitzki was there with everyone.
“… He hated Miami,” Barea said on JJ Redick’s “The Old Man and the Three” podcast. “He hated LeBron, Wade, Bosh. He would never say that, but he couldn’t stand it.”
The implication is that Nowitzki didn’t necessarily hate LeBron, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh personally, but hated the idea of three All-NBA players taking a championship shortcut by coming together in their bounties rather than continuing to stand. fight for the good fight, like Nowitzki did and continues to do in Dallas.
But the disdain perhaps got more personal when LeBron and Wade began to openly mock Nowitzki for letting the media know he wasn’t feeling well until Game 5, possibly suggesting Nowitzki was building an excuse. , or that he was gentle. , or maybe he just wasn’t cut out for the big stage. Here is the incriminating video.
Whatever LeBron and Wade intended, they seemingly started a fire under Nowitzki, and by extension the Mavericks, who as a result of the video won the next two games to steal the ring right from Miami’s collective finger.
“When LeBron and Wade started laughing at him coughing when he got a little sick… that clip really hurt him,” Barea said. “He’ll never say it, but he really saw the tape, and that tape really hurt him, and it gave him a little extra, which he didn’t need, but it gave him a little extra to finish them. “
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