Here's the rest of "Dirks words" from the German media outlet that he stated that to Here's one from an interview w/a dutch site He WAS NEVER going to leave Dallas. He would have strongly considered Miami if they called him but all signs point to him remaining in Dallas even if that happened. That's Dirk and that's his relationship with the team, the owner, the GM , the fans and the city.
he endured MASSIVE criticism and failures that were never his fault. Yet he stuck with the mavs after everything that happened. Reminds me of Yao's loyalty.
To be fair, to accumulate a payroll that high under this CBA requires years and years of re-signing players, sign+trades, making trades. I am sure Miami would have a $90M+ payroll with this current CBA 2-3 years down the line, this is their first year of contention (and all they really did was max out their capspace and re-sign Haslem/Wade). Lakers, Celtics, Magic all have payrolls in the same ballpark (and these are franchises which have been legitimate contenders for the past several years). Can't really compare. Different circumstances. And besides, Miami despite having a lower payroll is a more talented team (good luck arguing that), Dallas has ALOT of overpaid players.
the team that went to the finals in 06 consisted of harris, stack, howard, terry and Dirk . Dirk was the backbone and basically took that team to the finals himself. Game 7 vs SA has to be one of the best I've ever seen.
Noone's disputing their talent. LBJ just doesn't know how to play with someone as talented as him in crunch time of a close meaningful game. To some extent, the same can be said about Bosh & even Wade.
I get why people are celebrating this, but how many other players on the roster were drafted and developed by the Mavs? In the starting five? Matrix and Terry came from Phoenix (Matrix very recently), Chandler from the Hornets (and Chicago before that, at least), and Stevenson got their after, what... Washington and being drafted by Utah? The difference is that Cuban could not snag a Bosh or Lebron for his version of Wade (would have if he could have), and then the biggest difference is that he didn't assemble this all in one summer, with a spectacle like "the Decision" and the laser light show. So other than PR and perception, I don't think Dirk's Dallas championship is inherently anymore wondrous than Wade's would be if the Heat had won. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a big Heat fan, and I found myself cheering for Dallas (I think I have a man crush on the Dallas coach for his schemes*), but you look at that roster and there are some amazing players (late in their careers) that Cubes put together for Dirk.
Nice post, but I'll just point out that Terry was playing with the Atlanta Hawks before he came to Dallas. He played at Arizona in college, which might be why you're thinking of Phoenix.
OMG, you are so right. Who on earth am I confusing him with? Someone Barkeley used to joke about with the high socks, was a goofball, and played for Phoenix. Gads, but I'm getting senile.
