Charles Barkley's Assessment of Dirk Today

[Jimmy1234]

Barkley was on the Jen Engle show with Mike Taylor and Matt Mosley this morning...and he made this point about DIRK

he said a lot of the criticism is so unfair to DIRK, because he along with lebron james cannot have a bad game because if they do, then their team is dead....he said those 2 players are the only ones that can claim this....and he said look at dirk's supporting cast...phx has 3 all stars, san antonio has 3, etc. but the MAVS have great options but not 2 all stars yet...dirk's the only one....and so much is put on his shoulder........he said its not really fair to dirk a lot of times when he gets the criticism he does because the team relies so much on him playing great.

I agree!

[Findog]

Barkley was on the Jen Engle show with Mike Taylor and Matt Mosley this morning...and he made this point about DIRK

he said a lot of the criticism is so unfair to DIRK, because he along with lebron james cannot have a bad game because if they do, then their team is dead....he said those 2 players are the only ones that can claim this....and he said look at dirk's supporting cast...phx has 3 all stars, san antonio has 3, etc. but the MAVS have great options but not 2 all stars yet...dirk's the only one....and so much is put on his shoulder........he said its not really fair to dirk a lot of times when he gets the criticism he does because the team relies so much on him playing great.

I agree!

Dirk put up 19, 10 and 3 in the GS series, which isn't MVP-worthy, but it's still All Star caliber with double and triple teams swarming him. He had one truly terrible game in G6. He didn't play up to his standards, but his teammates didn't pick up their games and make the Warriors pay for the defensive attention keyed on him. Who had a good series on Dallas, besides maybe Diop, our seventh-best player? Does anyone want to seriously argue that our interior defense doesn't suffer when our starting C is out with a torn rotator cuff? Did Dirk guard Baron Davis?

http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_22443.shtml

Scouts and coaches know what happened in that series. Watch the "Dirk is a choker/has no heart/guts" posts roll in. Apparently a lot of opposing fans are psychiatrists or otherwise employed in the field of mental health.

[Pistons < Spurs]

While he makes valid points that I agree with for the most part, I still have to call BS.

Dirk and Lebron, perhaps moreso than any other players out there (You can also throw in Wade and Kobe---but they've atleast won rings) get more hype, love and attention than anyone else in the game. If they can accept all the praise when things are clicking, then they can also deal with the focus being on them when things go wrong. It's simply the price they pay. And I definitely do not feel bad for either of them.

[shyne]

I could have sworn Josh Howard was an All-star this year.

[Findog]

While he makes valid points that I agree with for the most part, I still have to call BS.

Dirk and Lebron, perhaps moreso than any other players out there (You can also throw in Wade and Kobe---but they've atleast won rings) get more hype, love and attention than anyone else in the game. If they can accept all the praise when things are clicking, then they can also deal with the focus being on them when things go wrong. It's simply the price they pay. And I definitely do not feel bad for either of them.

I'm all for honest evaluations of a player's game. LeBron is the guy talking about being a "global icon," whatever that means, Dirk is the guy who always takes care to credit teammates and coaches when things go well and to take the blame when things go wrong. It's wrong to gloss over a player's flaws and it's wrong to pile on and make more of something than what is there. Dirk's a great player, and implicit in some of the criticism coming from other fanbases is that he's worthless if he doesn't lead a team to a le. In the last 20 years, only Magic, Isaiah, Jordan, Hakeem, Duncan, Shaq/Kobe and Wade can say they've done that. There's some level of respect that those fans refuse to acknowledge if they're expecting that from Dirk and piling on when he fails to measure up to that standard.

[Findog]

I could have sworn Josh Howard was an All-star this year.

All-Star injury replacement at forward. Marion, Melo, Rashard, Artest, > Howard.

[SpursFanInAustin]

I could have sworn Josh Howard was an All-star this year.

Exactly!

And we heard all season from Dallas fans that the Mavs were the deepest team in the NBA filled with youth and athleticism while the Spurs were old and on the decline, and stuff like Mavs big 4 > Spurs big 4

[shyne]

He was the only one that showed up against Golden State, he deserved to be an all star

[SpursFanInAustin]

He was the only one that showed up against Golden State, he deserved to be an all star

I also thought Jerry Stackhouse stepped up quite a bit as well.

[ShoogarBear]

Dirk put up 19, 10 and 3 in the GS series, which isn't MVP-worthy, but it's still All Star caliber with double and triple teams swarming him. He had one truly terrible game in G6. He didn't play up to his standards, but his teammates didn't pick up their games and make the Warriors pay for the defensive attention keyed on him. Who had a good series on Dallas, besides maybe Diop, our seventh-best player? Does anyone want to seriously argue that our interior defense doesn't suffer when our starting C is out with a torn rotator cuff? Did Dirk guard Baron Davis?

http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_22443.shtml

Scouts and coaches know what happened in that series. Watch the "Dirk is a choker/has no heart/guts" posts roll in. Apparently a lot of opposing fans are psychiatrists or otherwise employed in the field of mental health.

So then is Dirk the MVP or not? Yes or no.

[ChumpDumper]

So mavfan doesn't think his roster is that good now?

[monosylab1k]

Mavs fans can make excuses for him all they want, but it's pretty evident.

Other than a flash of greatness against San Antonio last year, Dirk has been a pretty mediocre playoff performer ever since assuming the role of "The Man" on the team.

[td4mvp3]

Barkley was on the Jen Engle show with Mike Taylor and Matt Mosley this morning...and he made this point about DIRK

he said a lot of the criticism is so unfair to DIRK, because he along with lebron james cannot have a bad game because if they do, then their team is dead....he said those 2 players are the only ones that can claim this....and he said look at dirk's supporting cast...phx has 3 all stars, san antonio has 3, etc. but the MAVS have great options but not 2 all stars yet...dirk's the only one....and so much is put on his shoulder........he said its not really fair to dirk a lot of times when he gets the criticism he does because the team relies so much on him playing great.

I agree!

weren't finley and nash all-stars? didn't duncann win it all before gino and parker were all-stars? at the least, gino was the only all-star in 05.

[Jimmy1234]

I also thought Jerry Stackhouse stepped up quite a bit as well.

Please, Brickhouse bricked for 33% shooting in that series. Wow, he really stepped up his game...

[itzsoweezee]

hilarious, so now dirk doesn't have any other great players on his team. wasn't it just a few months ago all the mavs fans were talking about how much better the mavs trio is better than the spurs trio?

[ShoogarBear]

For one 56-game stretch, they were the best that ever lived . . .

[shyne]

No way Dirk is the MVP cause hes a pussy. He settled for jumpers the whole series, cause he was scared that he was gonna take hard shots from GS. Once he started missing, he just kept shooting, but still knowing what he needed to do. I mean come on its Dirk the refs would have put him at the line like 50 times a game.

[Findog]

So then is Dirk the MVP or not? Yes or no.

No, Duncan is better than Dirk. Duncan should win it every year but media types find that repe ive.

[Findog]

So mavfan doesn't think his roster is that good now?

Who played well in that series against Golden State? Dirk wasn't the only guy to underperform, that's all I'm saying.

[Findog]

Mavs fans can make excuses for him all they want, but it's pretty evident.

Other than a flash of greatness against San Antonio last year, Dirk has been a pretty mediocre playoff performer ever since assuming the role of "The Man" on the team.

He's been "the Man" since the first year at the AAC. Since that time, I count seven series wins, a trip to the Finals and another trip to the conference Finals, and a 4-0 record in Game 7. And you want Garnett of all people to replace him?

[E20]

The same could be said about Kobe.

[ShoogarBear]

Mavs are 4-0 in game sevens with Dirk? Now that's interesting, I didn't realize that.

[Findog]

Mavs are 4-0 in game sevens with Dirk? Now that's interesting, I didn't realize that.

5-0 in series-deciding games if you count the win over Utah back in the old first round format. Of those five games, he played subpar in only one of those -- G7 against Houston in 2005. The other four, he came to play.

[monosylab1k]

He's been "the Man" since the first year at the AAC. Since that time, I count seven series wins, a trip to the Finals and another trip to the conference Finals, and a 4-0 record in Game 7. And you want Garnett of all people to replace him?

Good for him. Spin the numbers however you like, but that's all you're doing.

He's also been a part of a team that blew a 3-0 series lead to Portland and damn near lost game 7, went down 0-2 to a vastly inferior Houston team and allowed them to stretch it to 7 (not expending all that energy against Houston would have helped tremendously against a beatable Phoenix team that Dirk didn't exactly light it up against either), and of course the flameouts of the past 2 seasons where each time a guy 4 inches shorter than him found a way to thoroughly dominate him despite his "matchup nightmare" status.

How about the fact that for the better part of a decade people have been saying "Dirk needs to get a post game" and every year we hear reports of "Dirk is working on a post game" and every year when we lose we say "Where is Dirk's post game?".....every year we say "Dirk needs to be more aggressive" and Dirk says "I need to be more aggressive" and every year we wonder why Dirk isn't aggressive when it matters most.

Oh, and a free throw here and there, and this team is a champion. He's a 90% free throw shooter. Excuse for that?

He had a brilliant series against San Antonio last year, but aside from that, he has not shown an ability to carry a team. Each year our playoff "hero" is Nash or Finley or Van Exel or Terry or someone else that isn't "The Man"......aside from one brilliant series, it has not been Dirk.

[ambchang]

Josh Howard was an all-star this year, and only Parker was one. Ginobili was not an all-star this year, and if you mean former all-stars, so was Stackhouse, two-time all-star, in fact.