The NBA finals tip-off tomorrow, and apart from the obvious championship glory that awaits the winning team, the individual legacy of two of the NBA’s greatest players is also at stake. The series isn’t just the Dallas Mavericks versus the Miami Heat, it’s Dirk Nowitzki versus LeBron James.
Nowitzki is Dallas’ best player, and the German is widely regarded as the greatest shooting big man in NBA history. Standing seven-foot tall, Nowitzki eschews the stereotype that tall players should camp out under the ring and concentrate on dunking and rebounding.
If he was born in America, it’s unlikely he would have become the excellent outside shooter he is, as high school and college coaches in the States usually adhere to the tradition of placing their tallest players as close to the ring as possible.
As such, most tall players in America become adept at shooting close to the basket, but struggle shooting from long distance.
The theory, quite simply, is to maximise and utilise your height advantage.
That thinking may seem intuitive and common sense, and that’s because it is.
However, European coaches are not as rigid as their American counterparts, and this resulted in Dirk not being restricted to playing in the low post. Dirk’s unique skill set, combined with his height, provided him with an enviable and differentiated advantage: a seven-foot player shooting three pointers is almost impossible to defend.
When you include the fact that Dirk releases the ball well above his head, and also fades away from the basket, it makes ‘The Diggler’ an unstoppable offensive force, as evidenced by his average of 23 points per game across an NBA career that spans 13 seasons.
His individual success was punctuated with an MVP trophy in 2007. And his team, the Dallas Mavericks, have also been consistently successful, making the playoffs every season for the last 11 years.
Already anointed the best European player in NBA history, a championship remains all that is missing from Nowitzki’s impressive career. It’s also the only thing preventing him from being mentioned as one of the all-time greats.
At 32 years of age, this series could be Nowitzki’s last chance to win a ring and cement his legacy. Victory would also allow him to erase the painful memory of Dallas’ 2006 Finals loss, when they failed to win the championship, despite being up 2-0 in the series.
Their vanquishers in that 2006 finals series? The Miami Heat.
The rematch, along with Dirk’s legacy, is one of many juicy subplots to the 2011 NBA finals. However, they all take a backseat to the biggest story of all: LeBron James.
It’s a shame many people will be booing the NBA’s best player and hoping he and the Heat don’t win, rather than happily witnessing the coronation of the ‘King’. But James has no one to blame but himself for that predicament.
ESPN’s ‘The Decision’ and James’ now iconic quote “I’m taking my talents to South Beach” seem like an eternity ago, yet they still linger negatively in almost everyone’s memory.
Much has been said and written about LeBron James and the way he left Cleveland to line-up with his friends, and fellow All-Stars, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The goal was to win a championship. Or seven, if you believe LeBron.
In many ways, James will be vindicated for his decision if the Miami Heat should win. Whilst a title will not absolve him of the arrogant, myopic and prima donna behaviour of last off-season, it would be hard to argue that he didn’t make the right judgement if he is crowned an NBA champion.
Like Dirk, the one thing missing from James’ pedigree is a championship. Many have already anointed him an all-time great, but a title would completely validate it.
Whilst James is still just 26 years old, he’s under immense pressure to prove that he is a winner, rather than just supremely talented.
Nowitzki on the other hand, turns 33 in a fortnight and is therefore under pressure of a different kind: time.
It’s the German sharp-shooter versus the King without a crown.
And the winner won’t just be the NBA champion; they’ll also legitimately enter any conversation about the NBA’s greatest all-time players.
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