After the game against the Warriors, Nowitzki finally waited for the emotional moment of the jersey retirement. Winning the regular season MVP in 2007, winning the NBA championship trophy in 2011, and announcing the end of his career in 2019, before he knew it, now that the peak of Nowitzki's greatness has passed a decade.
In Dirk Nowitzki's career, the Golden State Warriors are a name that cannot be ignored.
In the 2006–07 season, Dirk led the Lone Rangers to no. 1 in the West. The first round of the playoffs clashed with the Golden State Warriors led by his former mentor, Nelson Sr., and everyone thought it would be a one-sided series. But in the end, the Lone Ranger unexpectedly lost to his opponent by an aggregate score of 2-4. Frustrated, Dirk grabbed the trash can and smashed it directly into the wall of the stadium passage, leaving a very unique mark. Now that the Warriors have moved their home stadium to the Chase Center across the sea, this wall of special significance has followed the team to San Francisco.
Now that Nowitzki has been away from the stadium for many years, the Lone Ranger arranged a jersey retirement ceremony for him today. Coincidentally, the opponent of the Lone Ranger in this game is the Warriors. Before the game began, the Warriors' players also paid their respects to Dirk. Among them, Klay Thompson even said: "Personally, you are one of the greatest shooters of all time, and obviously, the most capable big player. You guys played the best basketball, the best basketball. We may be called 'Splash Brothers', then you are 'Splash God'. ”
Before Dirk Nowitzki became the "Splash God", he was also just an unknown player. In the late 1990s, the NBA began to gradually become international, but the league's international players are still rare.
As the NBA's most internationally minded team, the Dallas Mavericks had begun to select materials around the world at that time. As we know it, they met Wang Zhizhi, an insider from China. At about the same time, German player Nowitzki also entered the vision of the Nelson father and son.
At first, their interest in Dirk didn't seem to be that great. "To be honest, I had only seen his videos at the time, and the picture quality was actually very bad." Nelson Jr. said. "All I can say is that he didn't back down in the face of confrontation, there aren't many European players like that. However, his personality seemed to be a little too kind, so I was worried that he would not be a real killer. ”
However, after Nike's peak Senovitsky's fame in 1998, the Nelson father and son firmly believed that Dirk was the core of the Lone Ranger's future. At the time, Nowitzki led internationals to a comeback to beat the United States, contributing a combined 33 points plus 14 rebounds throughout the game. Especially in the second half, he completely dominated the game. Now that Nelson Jr. recalls that game, there are still many details that he remembers vividly. 'In the second half, you can see Dirk performing like he often did later, constantly breaking through, carrying the ball across the field, and shooting three-pointers. Nelson Jr. said, "It was really hard for people at that time to imagine that a big man of 6'11 inches could keep shooting three-pointers, and he completely dominated the game. ”
But even so, not many people believe that Dirk can succeed in the future. In the 1998 NBA Draft, there were not many teams interested in competing with the Lone Ranger against Nowitzki. In his first season, Nowitzki only averaged 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, shooting only in the early 40 percent of the field. However, on the Lone Rangers side, especially Nelson Sr., remained adamant that Dirk would one day help the team win the championship.
Starting from the existing basketball environment, Dirk is undoubtedly the most suitable interior player for the current era. But more than 20 years ago, he was an outlier in the absolute sense. An interior lineman who is nearly 7 feet tall and has a certain athletic ability will be asked to gain weight that year and become the inner stalwart of the team. However, the elder Nelson used a very different way to cultivate his own team core. Dirk recalls his experience as he said, "If I meet other coaches, they'll let me go to the gym, gain twenty or thirty pounds, and let me play a completely different style of basketball." Maybe in the end everything will be different. I'm really lucky to be able to play under Nelson Sr., to be able to play my own basketball style and do what I'm good at. ”
As early as the 1999-00 season, Dirk averaged 3.7 three-pointers per game, accounting for more than 25% of his own shooting. By 2002-03, he averaged 4.9 three-pointers per game. For comparison, Ray Allen averaged only 6.6 three-pointers per game that season. No inside player had ever had such a terrifying range before Dirk that he could not only hit mid-range but also fire from outside the three-point line. At the same time, his running ability is also better than most of the interior, and Dirk and Nash's fast attack once became the brightest scenery in the NBA.
Many people say that Nowitzki changed the game of basketball. Carlisle said: "Dirk was a pioneer, and the league's trend in the draft was to make the lineup bigger, so Dirk became the third place on the team. However, as his career deepened, he gradually became the fourth and even fifth position, and Dirk changed everything with shooting. ”
Nowadays, the alliance is full of spatial interiors. But the player who really makes this philosophy deeply rooted in the hearts of the people is undoubtedly Dirk Nowitzki. On the eve of the small ball era, he has become the tide of the times. Dirk is very different from the big pitchers of his past, he can shoot anywhere on the field, he can create his own shooting space, and he can maintain efficiency while taking into account production. The cattle and horses wars of those years seemed to be a direct confrontation between tradition and the new wave. Although Duncan still won most of the duels, Nowitzki and his lone ranger still showed their unique and sharp side.
It is precisely because of Dirk's success in the Lone Ranger that more and more teams are beginning to have bolder ideas in the draft or in the development of young players. In 2007, the Raptors selected Italian Banjani with the first overall pick in the first round in the hope of recreating a dirk Nowitzki. Today, the Lone Ranger's inner lineman Porzingis is also regarded as one of Dirk's heirs in this league. Latvians said in interviews that without Dirk as a pioneer, the NBA would not have had a place for him.
However, both Banyani and Porzingis have a huge gap with Nowitzki in terms of personal strength and influence. Dirk's unique talent and day-to-day dedication have helped him have a perfect and unique career. By the time of the 2010-11 season, Nowitzki had become a master on the offensive end. On the one hand, he maintains his soft feel and the top flexibility in NBA history, and is able to create shooting space in various difficult situations. On the other hand, he can also create a threat to the low position, thereby maximizing his projection advantage.
Until now, the "Golden Rooster Independence" back-up jumper is still regarded as Dirk's signature, and no player has scored more than him in the middle distance in the past 25 years. Like the shining stars in NBA history, Nowitzki's career cannot be replicated. In today's space-based interior line, everyone will not forget that on the eve of the small ball era, there was an interior line from Europe who used his career to compose a story like "back to the future", just like people often say in these days, "The emergence of Nowitzki has permanently changed basketball." ”
Wen | Ji Mengnian
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