Dude had a great career. Was shocked when he had his coming out party against the garnett led timberwolves. He was abusing them. He was also the last dude who won a championship in recent memory without an allstar with him. It was just a perfect storm of great role players who did their role to a tee and 1 nba supertar who was on another level that playoffs. May the rockets and harden channel that 2011 mavs vibes this coming playoffs.
I actually think there are some parallels between Dirk and Harden. While certainly not unathletic, they were/are both more crafty than athletic.
Nothing but love and respect, that on legged shot will go down alongside the sky hook, dream shake, harden step back and what have you as one of the toughest shots to guard in NBA history. Was nice to see a grown man ability to cry and not try to act tough on the last night @ San Antonio. Respect!
There was no other player but Duncan playing at a star level, or anywhere near a star level, in 2003.
i hate mavprick with a passion. but gotta respect Dirk. he's definitely one of the best in his prime. 21 years and never switching a team? that's impressive. good bye Dirk
I can be wrong but Harden is strong as a bull, I think Dirk might be stronger than I give him credit for but it's more size and skills than strength.
Always liked Dirk. Hated the Mavericks and Cuban, but I've never had a problem with him. Given how much I hate that organization, I've always been surprised it hasn't rubbed off on my opinion of him.
Dirk is the last player to win a championship without an all star on this team, in 2011. James Harden will be the next player to win a championship without an all star, in 2019!
Duncan beat the 3 time defending champions LA lakers without a single all star on his team, and then went to register the only quad double on a finals game. Granted, it was against the nets, but a 20-20-10-10 stat line is still quite impressive, its such a shame that they only recorded 8 of his blocks. But if you youtube it, you can see the video of the other 2, its just that never been corrected.
Dirk went into the dumps as soon as Tyson left him. Without Tyson’s defense, he would have never won an NBA championship. He never did anything of note on defense apart from a couple of blocks. He was an offensive shooter/ scorer who could heat up, but he couldn’t do anything else. Hakeem was a true legend, who could do almost anything on both sides of the court. @tinman @ApacheWarrior @BaselineFade
