In 2009, three years removed from having their hearts ripped out during the finals by Miami, D senior editor Zac Crain put together an oral history of the big German’s time in Dallas. We’ve posted it here before, but that was a few years ago. He wasn’t the NBA’s sixth-most scoring leader then. As of last night, he is now. You should sacrifice some of your afternoon to read it.
It’s an awesome time capsule, told by the people who played with him, wrote about him, signed him, trained with him, and analyzed him. You’ve got Charles Barkley talking about the time he played against him when he was a teenager; Dirk put up 50 when Barkley’s Rockets visited Germany for an exhibition game. “We had another really good defender … and he just whooped their ass.” There are stories from Steve Nash, including memories of red-faced, late night bar photos that now live in infamy: “It was a regular night. The only thing that made it different is that someone had a camera. Will they ever go away? I hope not. Classic.”
You can relive the three point play that sent Game 7 of the San Antonio Spurs series to overtime in 2006. There’s a ton here, and it’s worth it even if you’re familiar with all of it. As for Dirk, he’ll probably wrap up the season around 800 points behind Michael Jordan for the fifth spot. He’s only logged 237 points this year, and there are 12 games left. So let’s put his total around 300—if he comes back next year, there’s still hope. He put up 927 one year ago.
We see you, Big German.
SIXTH ALL-TIME! pic.twitter.com/b1MMpCzgPe
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) March 19, 2019
