Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki was hailed as one of the all-time greats after he crowned his 13 years in the NBA with a first championship ring following the Dallas Mavericks 4-2 series win over the Miami Heat.
Named MVP of the NBA Finals, Nowitzki’s outstanding performances throughout the playoffs, with six 30-plus scoring games, were crucial to Dallas’ success as they gained revenge for their loss to Miami in the 2006 season.
“Dirk Nowitzki is simply one of the all-time greats and he was when we played him in 2006,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters.
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“His game has continued to elevate in his 30s. That’s a remarkable thing. I think that’s a great lesson for NBA players. You can still improve as you get older, and add more skills and dimensions to your game,” he said. “He is probably one of the most indefensible players in this league, because of his skill set, his shooting and his size, and now he’s seen every single coverage he can possibly see.”
Nowitzki averaged 26.0 points per game in the Finals and was incredibly accurate from the free-throw line, missing just one of 44 attempts to banish memories of the loss to Miami five years ago and finally win a ring.
“This is what I obviously played for the last couple of years,” Nowitzki told reporters.
“I think when you come in to this league you want to establish yourself. All these All-Star Games and all those things are nice, but when you get to a certain age, you’ve basically seen it all and all you play for is for that ring,” he said.
“It feels amazing now to know that nobody can ever take this away from us again and for one year we’re the best team that was out there. That feels amazing,” he said.
The 32-year-old Nowitzki, the most successful European in the history of the NBA, ran the risk of becoming another addition to the list of leading players who never won a title and he said he was delighted to have that monkey off his back.
“If you’re in this league for 13 years of just battling and playoffs for basically the last 10 or 11 years and always coming up a little short, then that is why this is extra special,” Nowitzki said.
Five years ago, Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade, then celebrating the title win over Dallas, said it was Nowitzki’s lack of leadership that had cost his team, but on Sunday he was full of praise for the man from Wuerzburg.
“I think he’s played awesome. Obviously Dirk, five years ago, it burned in him. He learned from that experience. Even though he was one-for-12 in the first half, he came out and made big shots for his team. He kept being aggressive, he kept shooting,” Wade said.
“So there’s no question he’s been a great individual player and now that he’s a champion, it goes without saying, what it means for his career,” Wade said.
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