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Nowitzki sheds some soft label in tough time
Nowitzki sheds some of soft label in tough time
May 15, 2009
By Mike Freeman
CBSSports.com National Columnist
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In the locker room of the professional athlete there are two eternal, great sins: being gay and being publicly played for a sucker by a woman.
phobia and misogyny aren't my things so don't look at me with those judgmental, beady little eyes. These are not my laws; this is the law of the athlete jungle. In the locker room, gay men are shunned and women are seen by many athletes as tools to be used, like a good wrench.
To some athletes, being gay or being punk'd by a woman is worse than doing steroids or gambling on their respective sports. It's absolutely, positively true. This is part of the athlete manifesto.
Those two "sins" are universal, translocating across every athlete constellation, with race, creed, color, national origin or political affiliation being irrelevant.
The part about this athlete code as it specifically relates to women brings me to Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.
While on a highly public stage, Nowitzki endured one of the most humiliating moments of his life and still fought valiantly against the Denver Nuggets.
The playoffs continue toward what seems to be the inevitable federal case of Kobe v. LeBron. One of their legacies will be rewritten: if Bryant is victorious, he will have won his first le without Shaquille O'Neal. If James wins, he starts his trek toward basketball immortality.
But one legacy has already been redone. It's Nowitzki's and it has been written for the better, the tarnishing hobgoblin that is the stain of playoff choker no longer applicable.
Cristal Taylor, rumored to be Nowitzki's fiancée, was arrested at Nowitzki's home while he was returning from a game. It had to be one of the more embarrassing moments in the life of a very private man.
This news emerged in the middle of a playoff series and Nowitzki didn't blame the media or shrink under the intense heat. He just played his ass off. Just a short time after the news about Taylor became public, Nowitzki dropped 44 on Denver. He averaged a LeBron-like 35 points and 15 rebounds in the first four games of the series.
Nowitzki played well despite having his fiancée play him. There are few who possess the mental discipline to drop 40 while their woman is led away in handcuffs.
Let's put it this way. Nowitzki handled this PR disaster better than fellow Texan Tony Romo ever would.
• Nowitzki committed to Dallas | Woman arraigned in Texas
Nowitzki is called soft, TNT analysts destroyed him on a nightly basis, and his fiancée, the woman he presumably loves, is allegedly a criminal who might not have only ripped others off but possibly Nowitzki as well.
Nowitzki responded by practically carrying Dallas on his back. The Mavericks lost but it wasn't Nowitzki's fault.
It's time to stop calling Nowitzki soft. No soft man could do what Nowitzki did against Denver: play ball crisply and aggressively while his future wife is headed for the hoosegow.
Nowitzki didn't get enough credit for how well he handled that situation and the days of people questioning his toughness should be over.
He won with people snickering behind his back. I'm not talking about ignorant fans or false outrage from message board posters. NBA players were (and still are) likely mocking Nowitzki for falling for an alleged conniving trollop. If you don't believe that Nowitzki's personal life wasn't a highly discussed topic across many clubhouses and locker rooms from football to NASCAR then -- and now -- you don't know athletes.
Even former athletes are chiming in. Tony Banks, the former St. Louis Rams quarterback who says he, too, was duped by Taylor some years ago, told the Dallas Morning News he's shocked Nowitzki got engaged to her.
"I can't believe she got as far as she did with Dirk, to be engaged," Banks told the paper. "Sometimes it's hard for people to believe that women can be that malicious. But there's a story here that has touched a lot of athletes and could have some damage."
Translation: Good grief, Dirk, were you really going to marry her?
Nowitzki fell full throttle under the charms of an alleged grifter but he never let his game languish. It was an impressive piece of mental discipline that should shift the way we think of him -- for the better -- from now on.
Not only should Nowitzki no longer be seen as an ineffectual, effeminate European fearful of post play and elbows, he should instantly vault near the top of the tough-guy list for surviving this ugly and public matter while in the middle of swapping jumpers with the Nuggets.
"Basketball business is public business," Nowitzki told the media. "My private life is private business. This is private business."
Nowitzki allowed a real-life Lilly Dillon into his inner sanctum and it's something that, contrary to what others might think, could happen to anyone. Dillon was a character from the move The Grifters who, after ripping off a mobster, was asked by a henchman: "Do you want to stick to that story, or do you want to keep your teeth?"
Nowitzki finally found out the real story all while fighting for his team's life in the playoffs, and maybe, just maybe, refuting his image once and for all as cotton candy soft.
To some degree, he deserves our appreciation, not ridicule.
, and Kerr hit bull shots. Finley's late season injury causing our guys to squander the top seed hurt as well
