It's official Dirk is MVP....

[mabber]

I think because he probably should have gotten it over Nash last year. Like those nonexistent "make up calls" when the refs know they blew one. I think this years MVP was probably decided at the end of last year.

Dirk did have a "good" regular season. But IMO, Josh Howard is more the leader of that team than Dirk is.

But theoretically, since the MVP is supposed to be the player that his team can't win without, a lot of guys could actually claim that award....

I'm still not sure why most everyone thinks Dirk is the leader on the Mavs??? Of course, as the best player he probably should be the leader but he's just not wired that way. Josh Howard is not a leader as well. Stack & Avery are the leaders and that's probably one of their problems as the 6th man and the coach shouldn't be the leaders IMO.

[florige]

dirk is a fanatastic, regular season player and deserves the award this year.

now when the stakes are high when the real season starts (i.e., the playoffs), the shrinkage factor occurs. i'm hoping he gets over it because dirk is the only mav i like.

I'm going to have to disagree with that statement. He plays like crap in the playoffs EXCEPT when he's playing us. It's like every shot that SOB throws up against us manages to drop. It's when he's playing against everyone else he plays like pure crap!

[DallasFan]

Do you think Dirk was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come out after Game 6 and tell him he just got Punk'd ? That the GS Warriors baskets had magnets in them and that the ball had a magnet too ? Damn, that would have been funny.

Mavs fan must still be having nightmares.

Yeah, but someone seems to have reversed the magnets...those shots aren't dropping against the Jazz like they did against the Mavs.

[mabber]

dirk is a fanatastic, regular season player and deserves the award this year.

now when the stakes are high when the real season starts (i.e., the playoffs), the shrinkage factor occurs. i'm hoping he gets over it because dirk is the only mav i like.

Maybe you should take a peek at his playoff history. It's damn good with many more clutch moments than choke moments.

[Findog]

I'm going to have to disagree with that statement. He plays like crap in the playoffs EXCEPT when he's playing us. It's like every shot that SOB throws up against us manages to drop. It's when he's playing against everyone else he plays like pure crap!

This is knee-jerking at its worst and ignores his entire body of work. He was crap against Miami and Golden State, but he was pure gold against Phoenix last year after we had eliminated the Spurs. Dude only hung 50 on the Suns in the pivotal Game Five. Dirk's won 8 playoff series. And here's another stat for you: The Dirk-era Mavericks are 5-0 in Game Seven/best of five Game 5's.

Criticize him all you want for his last two playoff series, and it's well deserved, but do you even watch any games your team isn't involved in?

Game Five of the 2001 Quarterfinals, Dallas beats Utah to clinch the series 3-2.

Dirk: 18 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 10-10 from the FT line. Dallas was a young team making its first playoff appearance in 11 years, and they were on the road against Stockton and Malone.

Game Seven of the 2003 Quarterfinals, Dallas beats Portland to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 31 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 12-21 from the floor, 6-6 from the line

Game Seven of the 2003 Semifinals, Dallas beats Sacramento to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 30 points, 19 rebounds, 2 assists, 12-20 from the the floor

Game Seven of the 2005 Quarterfinals, Dallas beats Houston to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 14 points, 14 rebounds, 5-14 from the floor. A bad game for sure, but a little misleading in that Dallas won 116-76 in a game that was over halfway through the 1st quarter.

Game Seven of the 2006 Semifinals, Dallas beats San Antonio to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 37 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 11-20 from the floor.

Here is his line from the series-clinching loss to Miami in Game 6, where he played well despite his team losing:

29 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, 10-22 from the floor.

You're going to have to do better and take Dirk's entire body of work into account before spouting off in an ill-informed manner. He's come up woefully short in clutch situations and he's also performed well in the clutch too.

Dirk is 5-0 in series-deciding games, 9-6 when his team is facing elimination. He deserves plenty of criticism for his last two series, but this knee-jerking crap is getting out of hand and is pretty ridiculous.

[to21]

It's hard to win when you're playing five on eight. In a fair fight, we sweep Golden State easily. The refs gave it to them. Hey, don't be mad at me because the Mavs are the best team and the league has to screw and cheat them out of what is rightfully theirs. I make predictions that turn out to be correct and people hate me for it, along with the fact that I refuse to worship the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Your shtick is getting old dude.

[cornbread]

Congrats to Dirk. People forget that the guy is a class act. He'll be back next year.

[Findog]

But winning a le is a different story, if he does do that he would be consider superstar like Timmeth!

True, three les separate Dirk from TD. The only question right now is will Dirk breakthrough like Elway, Peyton Manning or Shaq, or will he end up being another Dan Marino, Karl Malone or Patrick Ewing?

I don't want to see the Mavericks kneejerk and trade him away. Take him off this team and replace him with, I don't know, a thoroughly average player at his position and this team wins 45 games. We don't have the cap flexibility to bring in a Jermaine O'Neal without giving up too much in return. Our best bet for solving the weaknesses the Warriors exposed is to change the backcourt. Harris can drive to the basket but he can't distribute and neither one of them seem able to handle the big, athletic guards like B-Diddy and J-Rich.

[Findog]

Congrats to Dirk. People forget that the guy is a class act. He'll be back next year.

Yeah, the piling on is getting out of hand. He's a gym rat, he's a good teammate, so on, so forth. I DO think that there is something to the idea that you have to be a cold-blooded alpha dog and have a temperament on the court that would get you labeled a curmudgeonly asshole off the court. Jordan was not so nice a guy away from the gym, same goes for Kobe, Shaq. Duncan breaks this mold but the dude is an absolute assassin on the court, he is merciless, ruthless and he possesses a lethal intellligence. He knows what he has to do, what his teammates have to do and where on the court they're supposed to be and what their assignments are, and he's got three les from his ability to enforce his will. We saw a tiny smidgen of that last spring from Dirk but he has yet to prove he can do that for four straight rounds. We're certainly talented enough to win a le with the group we have but there are questions about what is between the ears of these guys.

He deserves plenty of criticism for Miami and Golden State, but let's save the mocking and trashtalk for Zach Randolph and Stephon Marbury.

[florige]

This is knee-jerking at its worst and ignores his entire body of work. He was crap against Miami and Golden State, but he was pure gold against Phoenix last year after we had eliminated the Spurs. Dude only hung 50 on the Suns in the pivotal Game Five. Dirk's won 8 playoff series. And here's another stat for you: The Dirk-era Mavericks are 5-0 in Game Seven/best of five Game 5's.

Criticize him all you want for his last two playoff series, and it's well deserved, but do you even watch any games your team isn't involved in?

Game Five of the 2001 Quarterfinals, Dallas beats Utah to clinch the series 3-2.

Dirk: 18 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 10-10 from the FT line. Dallas was a young team making its first playoff appearance in 11 years, and they were on the road against Stockton and Malone.

Game Seven of the 2003 Quarterfinals, Dallas beats Portland to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 31 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 12-21 from the floor, 6-6 from the line

Game Seven of the 2003 Semifinals, Dallas beats Sacramento to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 30 points, 19 rebounds, 2 assists, 12-20 from the the floor

Game Seven of the 2005 Quarterfinals, Dallas beats Houston to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 14 points, 14 rebounds, 5-14 from the floor. A bad game for sure, but a little misleading in that Dallas won 116-76 in a game that was over halfway through the 1st quarter.

Game Seven of the 2006 Semifinals, Dallas beats San Antonio to clinch 4-3

Dirk: 37 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 11-20 from the floor.

Here is his line from the series-clinching loss to Miami in Game 6, where he played well despite his team losing:

29 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, 10-22 from the floor.

You're going to have to do better and take Dirk's entire body of work into account before spouting off in an ill-informed manner. He's come up woefully short in clutch situations and he's also performed well in the clutch too.

Dirk is 5-0 in series-deciding games, 9-6 when his team is facing elimination. He deserves plenty of criticism for his last two series, but this knee-jerking crap is getting out of hand and is pretty ridiculous.

Okay let me re-phrase it some... When the expectations have been set at a high bar primaraliy these last two playoffs he has played like crap. And it's not even the fact that he tried and just happened to run into some bad shooting nights, I mean what happened to all the tongue wagging and stuff he was seen doing against the Spurs? It seems like he gets all fired up calling for the ball and everything when he plays us, but where is that same fire when there is just the slightest bit of question involved? Sure he had good games against Phx, Portland, And a injury depleted Suns team last year. It's like soon as he starts to panic just a little bit he chokes, Except last year against us in that game 7. Why couldn't he play with that same determination against GS or Miami? But since you went through all the trouble and found his stats I'll man up and say that I was wrong to say that he played like crap his entire playoff career. Happy??

[Findog]

When the expectations have been set at a high bar primaraliy these last two playoffs he has played like crap.

Go back and watch the 2006 Finals. Notice the way Haslem and Posey were allowed to aggressively body up Dirk? Were the Maverick perimeter defenders given the same leeway against Wade? Aside from questionable officiating in the Miami series, you're letting Avery off too easy. He was thoroughly outcoached by both Don Nelson and Pat Riley. I guarantee you if Riley and Nelson had their choice of which roster to have, they would've both chosen Dallas. And if you switch coaches in those two series, the result also changes. You don't change a lineup that won you 67 games. Instead of Dampier out on the floor and Dirk playing his natural 4 spot, he was plugged in at center where he was an absolute defensive liability. You change up your rotation, guys aren't playing their normal minutes, they're out on the floor with teammates in combinations they're not used to, and they're playing at different spots on the floor that they're not used to. Go back and look at Dirk's splits from after the All-Star break: He was tired. He plays for the German national team every summer, his previous NBA season didn't end until late June, he'd been playing nonstop for about a year. His numbers were all down in the second half and while the team kept chugging along and racking up wins, they weren't playing nearly as well towards the end. These aren't excuses, just explanations.

Why couldn't Avery have Dirk go down to the lowblocks instead of positioning him up at the arc the entire series against Golden State? Why couldn't Jason Terry hit water from a boat against the Warriors? The entire team stunk against Golden State, not just Dirk...the whole team was out of sync.

And it's not even the fact that he tried and just happened to run into some bad shooting nights, I mean what happened to all the tongue wagging and stuff he was seen doing against the Spurs?

I didn't see a lot of tongue-wagging and "theater" in Games 1, 5 and 6.

It seems like he gets all fired up calling for the ball and everything when he plays us, but where is that same fire when there is just the slightest bit of question involved?

Yeah, he didn't want to beat Golden State or Miami. He lost the "fire."

Sure he had good games against Phx, Portland, And a injury depleted Suns team last year. It's like soon as he starts to panic just a little bit he chokes, Except last year against us in that game 7.

Or against Utah in 2001, Minnesota in 2002, Portland and Sacramento in 2003, Houston in 2005, Memphis, San Antonio and Phoenix in 2006.

Michael Jordan was atrocious against Orlando in 1994, Magic wasn't so hot against Boston in 1984, etc, etc. I'm not putting Dirk in their league, but nobody is going to come through every single time, and a lot of times it's a case of matchups and personnel. Golden State went something like 16-5 after that trade when everybody was healthy. They were a 55 win wolf in a 42 win sheep's clothing. And Dallas racked up 67 wins against a league where half the teams were tanking for Oden/Durant. It's not nearly as big an upset as people think. The Maverick's weaknesses were something that the Warriors were perfectly suited to exploit: they had a bevy of long, athletic wing players that can hit perimeter shots and stretch the floor, negating any inherent rebounding advantage of ours and allowing them to play small, they had big, athletic guards that can drive to the hoop against Terry and Harris because they were both bigger and quicker. Diop and Dampier are absolutely essential to beating San Antonio because they defend Duncan about as well as anybody, but they were useless against that small, quick lineup of Golden State's because they don't have the offensive games to punish the Warriors for playing smallball.

The playoffs are quickly becoming an exercise in rock, paper, scissors. They Warriors would've won 55 games if that team had been healthy and together all year long and they were constructed to beat a team like Dallas, just as the Mavericks were constructed to beat San Antonio. When we play you guys, Bowen has to go against either Howard or Dirk, whichever one he plays off of eats you guys alive. Against the Warriors, they played a zone keeping us away from the hoop, and there are about 3 or 4 guys on Golden State that have similar size and quickness as Howard and can cancel him out.

Dallas would've handled Utah easily in 6, with Diop and Dampier to keep Boozer from completely going off, along with Howard to sic on Deron Williams late in games. But the Jazz will beat the Warriors because they have something smallball can't deal with, which is a low-post scorer (Boozer) and a distributing point guard with size to match up with Baron Davis (Williams.) Rock, paper, scissors.

[spursreport]

I'm going to have to disagree with that statement. He plays like crap in the playoffs EXCEPT when he's playing us. It's like every shot that SOB throws up against us manages to drop. It's when he's playing against everyone else he plays like pure crap!

Our team of pussys last didnt get physical with that son of a last year. We gave him too much ing respect and we NEVER gave him or any mav hard fouls. Even if fouls were going to get called, none of our guys harassed the living out of dirk and they gave him cheap pussy fouls rather then putting him hard on his ass anytime he tried to drive.

[cornbread]

Yeah, the piling on is getting out of hand. He's a gym rat, he's a good teammate, so on, so forth. I DO think that there is something to the idea that you have to be a cold-blooded alpha dog and have a temperament on the court that would get you labeled a curmudgeonly asshole off the court. Jordan was not so nice a guy away from the gym, same goes for Kobe, Shaq. Duncan breaks this mold but the dude is an absolute assassin on the court, he is merciless, ruthless and he possesses a lethal intellligence. He knows what he has to do, what his teammates have to do and where on the court they're supposed to be and what their assignments are, and he's got three les from his ability to enforce his will. We saw a tiny smidgen of that last spring from Dirk but he has yet to prove he can do that for four straight rounds. We're certainly talented enough to win a le with the group we have but there are questions about what is between the ears of these guys.

I think a lot of people can't seperate Dirk from Cuban and some of the more arrogant fans so the backlash from the GSW series has been absolutely ruthless. He deserves critism but some folks have been completely writting him off. Anybody who's followed Dirk's career knows that he's capable of great things. Just look at last the 2006 Spurs series. He could not be stopped. He had a ty series against GSW but the last thing you want to do is start underestimating this guy because of it.

Dirk needs to get that mean-streak back. You know what I mean? He plays his best when there's a little bit of malice in his eyes.

[MadDog73]

Our team of pussys last didnt get physical with that son of a last year. We gave him too much ing respect and we NEVER gave him or any mav hard fouls. Even if fouls were going to get called, none of our guys harassed the living out of dirk and they gave him cheap pussy fouls rather then putting him hard on his ass anytime he tried to drive.

Man, you got it all wrong.... Spurs are THUGS, remember?

We don't practice defense, we just try to hurt people. Dirk just got lucky Bowen never bit his ear off...

[spursreport]

I think a lot of people can't seperate Dirk from Cuban and some of the more arrogant fans so the backlash from the GSW series has been absolutely ruthless. He deserves critism but some folks have been completely writting him off. Anybody who's followed Dirk's career knows that he's capable of great things. Just look at last the 2006 Spurs series. He could not be stopped. He had a ty series against GSW but the last thing you want to do is start underestimating this guy because of it.

Dirk needs to get that mean-streak back. You know what I mean? He plays his best when there's a little bit of malice in his eyes.

He imploded on the biggest stage of them all last year. Dirk did even worse in the first round this year. That isnt underestimating him, it is being realistic. Dirk cant handle teams who constantly harass and get physical with him. It gets to his head and totally hurts his game. The guy had his chances to prove himself and he couldnt do it. You have to give alot of the blame to Dirk.

[CharlieMac]

I'm way too excited about this presentation.

[spursreport]

Man, you got it all wrong.... Spurs are THUGS, remember?

We don't practice defense, we just try to hurt people. Dirk just got lucky Bowen never bit his ear off...

Giving a team an easy trip to the line or an easy basket is giving them too much respect. Put them on their ass for driving to the hoops. That isnt dirty ball that is good hard physical ball making the other team earn their 2 points.

[cornbread]

He imploded on the biggest stage of them all last year. Dirk did even worse in the first round this year. That isnt underestimating him, it is being realistic. Dirk cant handle teams who constantly harass and get physical with him. It gets to his head and totally hurts his game. The guy had his chances to prove himself and he couldnt do it. You have to give alot of the blame to Dirk.

Uh, I did say he deserves the blame. But go ahead be realistic and write him off. Hopefully he'll implode the next time the Spurs match up with him so he doesn't send us fishing like he did in 2006.

[MadDog73]

Giving a team an easy trip to the line or an easy basket is giving them too much respect. Put them on their ass for driving to the hoops. That isnt dirty ball that is good hard physical ball making the other team earn their 2 points.

Did you think I was serious? I thought the Mike Tyson reference eliminated the need of a

I was pointing out the irony that the Spurs don't play "hard ball" like they could, when Suns fans feel they are the dirtiest team in the NBA. (World?)

That's not to say they don't play defense, but they don't throw Nash to the ground everytime he goes to the basket!

[LEONARD]

Uh, I did say he deserves the blame. But go ahead be realistic and write him off. Hopefully he'll implode the next time the Spurs match up with him so he doesn't send us fishing like he did in 2006.

Smart man...

[Obstructed_View]

Beno and Barry for Dirk. I'll take him on my team any day of the week.

[ATXSPUR]

Real deal? In the regular season Iirk may be a badass but the son of a cant handle physical play from other teams. Real deals arent scared to take big shots and arent scared of contact. They dont get humilated in the first round either. Nash is the real deal a of alot more than Irk is.

Personally I saw screw dirk and nash

[SRJ]

Twenty retired players have won the NBA MVP award. Of those twenty, only Charles Barkley and Karl Malone failed to win NBA championships.

Of the six active players to win the award, only Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal have won NBA les. Here are the rest:

Allen Iverson
Kevin Garnett
Steve Nash
Dirk Nowitzki

Food for thought.

[Obstructed_View]

It's the era of statpadders. Gaudy numbers get you awards.

[spursreport]

Uh, I did say he deserves the blame. But go ahead be realistic and write him off. Hopefully he'll implode the next time the Spurs match up with him so he doesn't send us fishing like he did in 2006.

If the spurs get physical with him, I highly doubt he will be great against us then. Fact is the spurs respected Dirk way to ing much which is why he played out of his mind. Show no respect, put him on his ass hard anytime he drives to the hoop, and give him no breathing room once he gets the ball. If they are gonna call fouls you might as well make them worth something rather then giving him an easy trip to the line with a little pussy slap foul. Dirk is ing soft and I dont see how that is writing him off. It has literally shown how he is when I know you like taking it up the ass when it comes to respecting Dirk. He is a good player, but I am not going to give mad props to a player who really hasnt improved his mental toughness.