duncan228
05-09-2009, 11:29 PM
Edit: Sorry, wrong forum. Please move.
Babe in Dallas: Life of Nowitzki (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Babe_in_Dallas_Life_of_Nowitzki.html)
Buck Harvey
Everyone else was still screaming. Some were pulling on each other, and Mark Cuban was pushing a camera out of the way. None of the Mavericks would feel better when the NBA later admitted a mistake had been made.
While all of this was going on Saturday, Dirk Nowitzki walked off by himself.
He's been doing this too much.
He would tell reporters in Dallas that Saturday's loss was “about as tough” as any he's experienced. That's something considering his Finals collapse in 2006.
He missed his last five shots against the Nuggets. Still, he held up his end, with 33 points and 16 rebounds, and afterward he addressed the media with his usual calm.
He did two years ago, too, when he was bounced from the first round as the MVP. He heard criticism — most of it harsh — and took it as David Robinson once did. That's why a lot of people who know him, like him.
But Nowitzki was groomed for this. He would be an international star, and he would channel his energies in one direction. Basketball.
He went from high school to the German army to the NBA draft. He was a Maverick five days after his 20th birthday, and he packed a towel for his first trip to Dallas. According to a story in the Dallas Morning News, he wasn't sure a towel would be provided at the home of the Mavericks' coach at the time, Don Nelson.
A year later he still acted like a kid at summer camp. He slept catty-corner on a twin bed in his apartment, with a stack of unpaid bills and uncashed checks in the corner. He would get some assistance eventually, and he would upgrade to a Dallas mansion.
Still, he kept exercise equipment in his den, because that's what he knew. Just two years ago someone had to show him how to tie a tie.
He often dined with staff when on the road. And two years ago, without a wife or a girlfriend, he was asked by a reporter if he had plans for the future.
“Obviously I don't want to be a 40- or 45-year-old (new) dad,” he said. “So I'm sure in the next five or six years, something's going to happen.”
Something happened, all right. Cristal Taylor is one of her names, and she has at least seven others. The depth of their relationship has yet to be clarified, but this is undeniable: She was taken from Nowitzki's home to the Dallas County Jail, and bail is at $20,000.
So how could this happen to Nowitzki, 30, who has played nearly a dozen years in the NBA? Because even the rich and famous can be clueless when sequestered from the population.
He's backpacked in Australia, and he's hung with Steve Nash. But he didn't have a social antenna. He didn't know people. He had been living in arenas in a foreign country, and according to reports, the Mavericks franchise was the one that wondered about Taylor.
According to others, franchise execs didn't mind sharing their information about Taylor with the media. They wanted to protect Nowitzki and, at the same time, make sure he understood Taylor.
Public humiliation would be part of this process for Nowitzki.
“It was a tough week for me and my family, but I stuck with it,” Nowitzki told the media after the loss Saturday. “If you go through tough times in your life, basketball is always an (escape). It's what we love to do, and I felt good out there.”
For him, “out there” is the court. He knows the basketball world better than any other, and he proved that again Saturday.
It's when he walks off, by himself, that he enters the unknown.
Babe in Dallas: Life of Nowitzki (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Babe_in_Dallas_Life_of_Nowitzki.html)
Buck Harvey
Everyone else was still screaming. Some were pulling on each other, and Mark Cuban was pushing a camera out of the way. None of the Mavericks would feel better when the NBA later admitted a mistake had been made.
While all of this was going on Saturday, Dirk Nowitzki walked off by himself.
He's been doing this too much.
He would tell reporters in Dallas that Saturday's loss was “about as tough” as any he's experienced. That's something considering his Finals collapse in 2006.
He missed his last five shots against the Nuggets. Still, he held up his end, with 33 points and 16 rebounds, and afterward he addressed the media with his usual calm.
He did two years ago, too, when he was bounced from the first round as the MVP. He heard criticism — most of it harsh — and took it as David Robinson once did. That's why a lot of people who know him, like him.
But Nowitzki was groomed for this. He would be an international star, and he would channel his energies in one direction. Basketball.
He went from high school to the German army to the NBA draft. He was a Maverick five days after his 20th birthday, and he packed a towel for his first trip to Dallas. According to a story in the Dallas Morning News, he wasn't sure a towel would be provided at the home of the Mavericks' coach at the time, Don Nelson.
A year later he still acted like a kid at summer camp. He slept catty-corner on a twin bed in his apartment, with a stack of unpaid bills and uncashed checks in the corner. He would get some assistance eventually, and he would upgrade to a Dallas mansion.
Still, he kept exercise equipment in his den, because that's what he knew. Just two years ago someone had to show him how to tie a tie.
He often dined with staff when on the road. And two years ago, without a wife or a girlfriend, he was asked by a reporter if he had plans for the future.
“Obviously I don't want to be a 40- or 45-year-old (new) dad,” he said. “So I'm sure in the next five or six years, something's going to happen.”
Something happened, all right. Cristal Taylor is one of her names, and she has at least seven others. The depth of their relationship has yet to be clarified, but this is undeniable: She was taken from Nowitzki's home to the Dallas County Jail, and bail is at $20,000.
So how could this happen to Nowitzki, 30, who has played nearly a dozen years in the NBA? Because even the rich and famous can be clueless when sequestered from the population.
He's backpacked in Australia, and he's hung with Steve Nash. But he didn't have a social antenna. He didn't know people. He had been living in arenas in a foreign country, and according to reports, the Mavericks franchise was the one that wondered about Taylor.
According to others, franchise execs didn't mind sharing their information about Taylor with the media. They wanted to protect Nowitzki and, at the same time, make sure he understood Taylor.
Public humiliation would be part of this process for Nowitzki.
“It was a tough week for me and my family, but I stuck with it,” Nowitzki told the media after the loss Saturday. “If you go through tough times in your life, basketball is always an (escape). It's what we love to do, and I felt good out there.”
For him, “out there” is the court. He knows the basketball world better than any other, and he proved that again Saturday.
It's when he walks off, by himself, that he enters the unknown.