Dirk Nowitzki is in the conversation when you talk about the greatest international players in NBA history. Dirk ranks 6th on the scoring charts and is one of 7 players to have scored over 30,000 points in their career. He also famously won the title in 2011 after an epic postseason run that ended with a stunning win over the LeBron James-led Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
No one gave the Mavericks a chance at winning that series, but Dirk shone on the biggest stage while James crumbled, and that ended up leading to one of the greatest upsets in NBA history. That was probably the lowest moment of LeBron’s career, but he has since then made amends for that poor showing. James has won 4 titles after that defeat in 2011 and has put his name in the discussions regarding the greatest player of all time.
Dirk Nowitzki Picks Between Michael Jordan And LeBron James
The debate nowadays often boils down to just LeBron and Michael Jordan. The two have separated themselves from the rest of the pack in the eyes of many, and we see heated debates on just who is better quite often. Dirk was recently asked to make his pick between the two of them during an appearance on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, and there seems to be little doubt about the matter in his mind.
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He picked Jordan almost instantaneously there. A majority of the people do agree with Dirk here, as many don’t feel LeBron has done enough to surpass MJ. They also point to the 2011 Finals as a reason why James will never be the GOAT, as Jordan never had a meltdown like that on the biggest stage of the sport.
While a lot of focus does go on LeBron’s shortcomings in that series, the Mavericks also deserve a lot of credit for slowing him down. Once they did that, the onus was on Dirk to deliver on offense, and he did just that. Nowitzki, during this interview, also spoke about how he changed his diet when he was 27 years old and added that it made a big difference in his career. It certainly did, as he had a lot of success on the court after it.
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