Back in 1998, the Milwaukee Bucks drafted a skinny 20 year-old kid out of Germany named Dirk Nowitzki and immediately traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Robert “Tractor” Traylor and Pat Garrity. The Bucks never had any intention of keeping Nowitzki; at that point, the Mavs were on the forefront of foreign scouting and were the only ones that were willing to draft him that early. Still, for obvious reasons, Bucks fans cringe whenever they hear Dirk’s name.
Last night, Nowitzki led the Mavs to a 115-113 overtime win over the suddenly hot Bucks in Milwaukee. Dirk had 32 points (on 12-25 shooting), 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block. He also hit the game-winning buzzer-beater in overtime. Here’s a look:
Originally published December 11, 2008.
Updated November 12, 2009.
The phrase “Summer of 2010″ has become part of the NBA lexicon. Teams have been tripping over each other trying to clear cap space for next summer so that they can sign an impact free agent (or two). With that in mind, let’s take a look ahead at the free agent crop of 2010.
Below is a list of the top 10 players that are likely to be free agents next summer. I’m ranking them based mostly on talent, but it’s also important to note each player’s age in July of 2010, as that will affect his value and skill. For example, a 31 year-old Paul Pierce holds much more value than a 33 year-old Paul Pierce. Get the drift?
1. LeBron James, SF (26 years-old)
James is the golden boy of this free agent class and is the player that every franchise would love to land next summer. He will have just turned 26 and whatever team is lucky enough to sign him will – barring injury – enjoy four or five years of the best basketball of his career. The Cavs have gone “all in” this season, signing Shaq, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon, and re-signing Anderson Varejao. In the process, they gave up whatever cap space they would have enjoyed next summer. If Cleveland’s season ends in disappointment once again, it wouldn’t be surprising if LeBron decides to take his game elsewhere. Three teams — the Knicks, Bulls and Nets — jump out as good fits. LeBron has stated that his top priority is to become a “global icon” and playing in Manhattan would serve that purpose. If the Knicks are able to unload Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries before the trade deadline, then they’ll have the projected cap space to sign two top players on this list, and that might be enough to convince LeBron to sign on the dotted line. Plus, he’s familiar with Mike D’Antoni (via the duo’s work with Team USA) and the Knicks’ up-tempo system would be a near-perfect fit for LeBron’s skill set. The Nets offer a better supporting cast (led by Devin Harris and Brook Lopez) and the (impending?) move to Brooklyn would boost the franchise’s profile. Chicago has a number of pieces already in place (Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Kirk Hinrich) and is bigger market than Cleveland. But would LeBron want to go to the franchise that Michael Jordan built? Note: Player option (PO)
Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points in the fourth quarter — you read that right — to give the Mavs a 96-85 win over the Utah Jazz. He posted 40 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and two steals. He shot 12 of 22 from the field and 15 of 16 from the charity stripe. The Mavs trailed by 16 with 8:17 to play before they made their charge.
After a somewhat surprising loss to the Washington Wizards on opening night, the Mavs beat the Lakers soundly on the road and derailed the Jazz at home, all without Josh Howard. They look like a fringe contender in the West. If they can stay healthy and get a few lucky bounces, they could challenge.
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki was informed Friday that his former fiancée, who was recently sentenced to five years in prison for a probation violation in Missouri, is not pregnant as she has maintained for months.
The test, ordered July 24 by Dallas family court Associate Judge Randall Grubbs, was administered in Missouri. Hart on Friday received the documentation confirming that Taylor is not pregnant.
This was a weird story from the start. Nowitzki can do better than a 38-year-old criminal, so let’s hope he picks a better woman next time.
- SPORTSbyBROOKS details the budding feud between Fran Tarkenton and Marcellus Wiley over what Tarkenton said about Brett Favre.
- As a caucasian baller myself, I could be offended by the tribute that WITH LEATHER posted, but I’m not. It was funny, especially the part about Dirk.
- DEADSPIN has video of some of the cooler kids in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, including one little dude who likes cookies more than Erin Andrews.
- SPORTSbyBROOKS.COM has photos of Jets’ rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez’s GQ photo shoot, which should give his new teammates plenty of ammo for pranks this summer.
- THE LOVE OF SPORTS details five ways to sneak into a ballgame, including finding a disgruntled usher.
- DEADSPIN has the details of Dirk Nowitzki’s girlfriend Cristal Taylor, who recently gave her first jailhouse interview since being arrested and confirmed that she is in fact pregnant with Dirk’s child.
- YARDBARKER has video of Terrell Owens in his first crack as a sports anchor. Apparently T.O. still loves himself some T.O. and Buffalo is all about it.
- TONYBLOGS.NET takes a look at tonight’s NBA draft lottery and the odds of a team getting the number one pick.
- With the Preakness’s decision to restrict alcohol in the infield, STEADY BURN fondly remembers the good ol’ days of the Terrorlawn.
- 20 SECOND TIMEOUT provides a nice breakdown of the All-NBA voting.
- SPORTSbyBROOKS informs us that USC head coach allegedly gave $1,000 to one of O.J. Mayo’s handlers after Mayo signed his letter of intent as a high school senior.
- DEADSPIN has a few quotes from former NFL-er Tony Banks, who says he used to date Dirk Nowitzki’s girlfriend/fiancee.
- THE LOVE OF SPORTS lists 10 Guys You Love to Hate, and it’s a good one.
There’s a weird story coming out of Dallas and it involves the Mavs’ best player, Dirk Nowitzki.
Dallas police officers went to Nowitzki’s house to arrest Cristal Taylor after confirming the existence of warrants for her arrest in Texas and Missouri, according to Dallas Police Department spokesman Lt. Andrew Harvey.
Sources close to the situation confirmed to ESPN.com the warrants were discovered when Nowitzki’s team of legal advisers hired a private investigator to research Taylor’s background, amid growing concern among those closest to the player inside and outside the Mavericks’ organization. Two Dallas television stations (KXTA-TV and WFAA-TV) have reported Taylor to be Nowitzki’s fiancée.
Taylor was still in Dallas County Jail on Thursday on $20,000 bond after being taken into custody on warrants accusing her of violating a probation sentence for two counts of forgery and one count of felony stealing in Missouri and a theft-of-service charge for failing to pay for an estimated $10,000 in dental work in Beaumont, Texas.
She was booked into jail Wednesday as Cristal Taylor, but authorities in both states have linked numerous aliases to the 37-year-old, including Crystal Ann Taylor, Christian Julie Wellington, Christian B. Travino, Crystal Nobles, Christy Nobles, Kristi Briana Westerhauf, Cristal Taylor Westerhaus, Christa A. Westerhays, Deborah Jackson, Shana Mancini, Crista Santiago, Crystal Ann Santiago, Crystall Ann Taylor and Kristin L. Rogers.
When pressed about the nature of his relationship with Taylor, after talking to reporters for some seven minutes, Nowitzki said three times that he would not comment further and asked if there were any more “basketball questions” before the interview was halted.
This story has a mug shot of Ms. Taylor/Wellington/Travino/Nobles/Westerhauf/Westerhaus/Westerhays/ Jackson/Mancini…ah, forget it. If you’re expecting her to be a knockout, be prepared for disappointment.
The first thing that jumps to mind — can’t Dirk do better than a 37 year-old, average-looking felon? What’s he thinking here? How does he get into this situation?
The one-two punch of LeBron James and Mo Williams provided 55 of Cleveland’s 99 points as the Cavs routed the Hawks, 99-72. LeBron had an MVP-like performance with 34 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and four steals. The Hawks have the talent to compete in this series, but they didn’t play very well against the Heat in the first round and that trend continued in the second half, where they were outscored 50-28. The Cavs’ defense forced 17 turnovers and held Atlanta to under 44% shooting.
In the late game, the Nuggets continued their march to the conference finals with a 117-105 win over the Mavs. Denver led by three heading into the fourth quarter, but a 9-0 run (including seven points from Carmelo Anthony) put Dallas in a bad spot. The Nuggets were up 19 with 2:50 to play, so the game wasn’t quite as close as the final score would indicate. Dirk Nowitzki did everything he could — 34 points, nine boards, four assists — but the Mavs were without Josh Howard (ankle) and were simply overmatched. The Nuggets had a balanced attack of Anthony (25 points), Nene (25), J.R. Smith (21), Chauncey Billups (18) and Kenyon Martin (12).
Smith in particular is an interesting player. He has a ton of scoring ability, but every so often he makes a bonehead play. I didn’t watch much of this game, but in the 10 minutes or so I did watch, Smith came over to help on Nowitzki at the top of the key and then suddenly left him — Dirk had the ball, mind you — to go cover J.J. Barea (or was it Antoine Wright?). Regardless, you don’t leave one of the league’s best scorers alone at the top of the key with the ball. Then, on the final play of the second quarter, he dribbled the ball around trying to wind the clock down, but then launched a 30-footer with five or six seconds to play. The long rebound bounced out to Jason Kidd, who had enough time to dribble to the other end of the court and get a good look at a three, which he made, cutting the Nuggets’ halftime lead to three.
But I guess when a guy is capable of scoring 21 points on just 10 shots in 25 minutes, you live with the occasional bonehead play.
Every so often, I’ll be sitting at a bar, throwing back a few adult beverages with a buddy or two and I’ll pose the following question:
If you could have one current NBA player to build your franchise around, with the goal of winning a NBA title in the next five years – who would it be?
Since the 2009 NBA Playoffs are in their infancy, it seems to be as good of a time as any to kick around this question. My criteria are simple – a franchise player has to be able to carry his team, while being reasonably young and injury-free.
We’ll count down from #10 to #1. My top nine guys were pretty easy to list, but #10 was a bitch. Maybe you can help me decide. Feel free to provide your own top 10.
HONORABLE MENTION
Yao Ming, Rockets (28 years-old)
I love Yao’s post up game, and he is a skilled passer, but the chances are only 60/40 that he’ll be healthy for any given playoffs and those odds are only going to decrease as time wears on. He’s like Robert Downey, Jr. — he’s great at what he does, but you just don’t know if he’s going to be there when you need him.
Chauncey Billups, Nuggets (32)
He seems to be more responsible than ‘Melo for the Nuggets’ great play this season, but he’s 32 years old. Still, his effectiveness depends more on strength, steady play and good shooting than it does his (somewhat limited) athleticism, so he should be able to play into his late thirties.
Al Jefferson, Timberwolves (24)
Jefferson is one of the few young, back-to-the-basket post players in the league. He averaged 23/11 on a bad team, which leads me to believe he could post 19/10 on a playoff team, and should only get better with age.
Amare Stoudemire, Suns (26)
He’s four years younger than our next guy, but he’s already had two serious injuries in his career so one wonders if this is a trend. He also seems to be a little bit on the selfish side and has a rep for being a bad defensive player.
Back in 1998, the Milwaukee Bucks drafted a skinny 20 year-old kid out of Germany named Dirk Nowitzki and immediately traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Robert “Tractor” Traylor and Pat Garrity. The Bucks never had any intention of keeping Nowitzki; at that point, the Mavs were on the forefront of foreign scouting and were the only ones that were willing to draft him that early. Still, for obvious reasons, Bucks fans cringe whenever they hear Dirk’s name.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points in the fourth quarter — you read that right — to give the Mavs a 96-85 win over the Utah Jazz. He posted 40 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and two steals. He shot 12 of 22 from the field and 15 of 16 from the charity stripe. The Mavs trailed by 16 with 8:17 to play before they made their charge.
