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Bosh is everything that Dirk is accused of being - a soft jumpshooter that has never won anything. Dirk's skin color has nothing to do with it. He came within an inch of a championship with his two best sidekicks being Jason Terry and Josh Howard. Between the two of them they have one All Star injury replacement selection between them. Could KG do that? No. Could Bosh do that? No. Could Gasol do that? No.
KG won a le with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Pierce is a 1.5 and Allen is definitely a 2. Dirk would have won a 'chip with those guys too. Gasol got his teeth kicked in by Dirk when they met in the playoffs in 2006. He had a 50-win Grizzly team around him and he couldn't win a single ing game against the Mavs. Trade them straight up for each other and the Mavs still win that series, but they don't sweep the Grizzlies.
Dirk's legacy has been tarnished by Miami and Golden State, but his performance in those series is not as bad as remembered. He put up 29/15 in Game 6 when the Mavs were eliminated by Miami. In Game 5, he matched Wade play for play down the stretch, hitting tough shots from the floor while Wade got bailed out by the refs. I give Miami credit for winning that series and it's definitely true that the Mavs had the le within their grasp and gave it away, but I will not accept anybody who says Dirk played poorly in that series.
Against Golden State, he sucked, no question about it. He put up 19/10 on 38% shooting after going for 25/9 on 50% shooting in the regular season. He was hurt, but Avery Johnson didn't believe in making excuses, so nothing much was ever said about it. If Dirk was black, he wouldn't have the soft Euro tag applied to him. You're not soft if you come back after 10 days on a high ankle sprain to carry your team into the playoffs, an injury that normally takes 6 weeks to heal.
I hope Dirk wins a le someday but I'm not holding my breath. I think it's unfortunate that Miami/Golden State has tarnished his legacy to the point that people think Chris ing Bosh and Pau Gasol are better. He deserved the hit to his reputation for losing to an 8 seed, but c'mon. He's put up 25/11 for his career in the playoffs, and it's not like the playoffs are a rare thing for the Mavs - Dirk has over a full season's worth of playoff games under his belt. He's won 8 series as a #1 guy - the list of his contemporaries who have done better is pretty small. He lost two-time MVP Steve Nash and the Mavs got better. How do you explain that? Paul Pierce is a perimeter-oriented player like Dirk - do you think the Celtics win it all in 2008 with Erick Dampier at C and Josh Howard at the 2-guard?
