The NBA’s record books are glittered with plenty of unforgettable deep playoff and championship runs throughout the league’s 77 years of existence.
And for Brandon Haywood, nothing can top what Dirk Nowitzki pulled for the Dallas Mavericks.
In his recent appearance in the Run Your Race podcast, the former veteran big man hammered his belief that the crown of the greatest title rally belongs to Nowitzki and the Mavs in 2011.
By considering the level of competition and the circumstances that have to be faced, Dirk and the Mavs’ 2011 title run truly holds a legitimate case to be considered the best ever.
Carving a 57-win season, Dallas landed as the No. 3 of the West. Yet despite a significant favor for home-court advantage, their path atop the NBA was simply mind-boggling.
Right at the first round, it took them six games just to dispatch a deep Portland Trail Blazers group led by Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. Yet in the following series, they flipped the switch and shocked the entire world by sweeping Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and the three-peat-seeking Los Angeles Lakers.
By manhandling the Lakers, Dirk and the Mavs felt a major momentum which they used in eventually outlasting a talented Oklahoma City Thunder bannered by the young Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden in the Conference Finals. And in the championship stage, against all odds, Nowitzki carried Dallas on his back in a historic fashion.
Facing a Miami Heat team that paraded their ‘Big 3’ of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, the Mavericks found themselves as the massive underdogs. But Nowitzki never faltered, delivering a remarkable Finals MVP performance for the ages by averaging 26.0 points, 9.7 boards, and 2.0 assists to give the franchise its first championship.
“It’s not a debate. When you look at who Dirk had to beat, the only thing close maybe is Hakeem Olajuwon when he had a run [in 1995 with the Houston Rockets],” said Haywood, who was a member of Dallas’ title squad. “Like, how many Hall of Famers did he knock off on that run?
“Your favorite Hall of Famers from that time period got clapped on that run.”
There are a handful of choices to pick from in debating the NBA’s greatest championship runs from Michael Jordan’s reign with the Chicago Bulls in the ‘90s, the early 2000s era of the Los Angeles Lakers with Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, or as what Haywood stated in which Hakeem Olajuwon and Houston Rockets won it all in 1995 despite being a sixth-seeded team.
But Dirk’s case with Dallas is simply magical and a special one of its own. From being generally mocked as a soft and underachieving star, that title in 2011 fully cemented his name as an all-time great, and it would take us for a while to witness a similar golden instance in the NBA that completely shifts a player’s status and perception.
Dirk has been synonymous with greatness and grace, and the way he led the Mavericks in the basketball paradise is some sort of a fairy tale story.
Related Posts
