Because he get all the calls. Dirk is a very good player but not a super star which David Stern wants to make him to be.
Dirk had the right to call Terry and Dampier out. He is the best player of the team and he is the leader. The problem is he couldn't back him up by his performance. You criticized your teammate publicly, OK, then show us what you can do. Lead by example. He couldn't. He lost his cool in OT and jacked up several unbelievable bad shots. That was his fault. Plus he likes to flop. Flopping is really a double-edged sword. You think you have the control of the Refs, you can always force them to make the call to benefit you. But once they stop calling it, you lose your composure easily.
Plus the idea of him calling anybody out for defense is laughable. Maybe if he didn't let Marion outscore him by 10, the Mavs might have won this game.
Dirk did not maintain composure and took his frustrations out on his team, instead of having a player conference when Nash played in Dallas. Remember those? It is obvious now that Nash was the leader in Dallas and Dirk rode the coat tail. Now that the pressure is all on him he points the finger somewhere else. I couldn't care less for what Dirk does as long as he never dons a Rocket uni.
it's weird b/c before he was a 1st teamer, he's had some great playoff series. which makes his general lack of aggression and underperformance all the more puzzling this year. he somehow had his best regular season ever and then had his worst playoffs ever.
Its not weird... its called having Steve Nash on your team. Dirk had a great regular season because of his ability to get to the FT line, and the fact that its hard to really game-plan against your oppponents when you only see them the one time. He is a mismatch for a lot of teams simply because he's 7 foot, and plays out on the perimeter. In the playoffs, defenses are designed specifically to shut out certain players. In the past, Nash and Dirk ran the pick and roll to perfection (a lot like Nash and another PF who gets a little more credit than he really deserves), and Dirk would get wide open jump shots. He's clearly a better player w/ Nash on the court simply because he's got no low-post game... and as we're now seeing, the refs don't bail you out w/ foul calls in the playoffs (the 1st rounde excluded).
What's even funnier is that ok, say the mavs/terry DID get the timeout they needed with 5.7 ticks left. Who would Avery Johnson let take the last shot? IMO, it wouldn't have been Dirk. The past playoff appearances, homeboy was pratically banned from last second chances by Don Nelson in favor of Finley and--of course--Nash. Would Avery Johnson have had the same distrust in Dirk? That's what's funny--Dirk can moan and yell at his teammates all he wants (and he has the right to because that shot by Stackhouse with FIVE POINT SEVEN seconds left was selfish/stupid) but in the end, would he have been the difference maker? And as seen in OT, he clearly isn't
Everybody cares about winning and losing in the playoffs. Dirk just has a nasty habit of *publically* calling out his teammates. Combine this with calling out Jason Terry, who is the main reason the Mavs advanced to the second round, makes Dirk seem like a classless whiner. That's been discussed to death here already. What this year's playoffs really exposed is how unspectacular this "superstar" really is. He's too slow to be a good defender and if you make him work for his shot he will shoot his team out of games without making anybody better. Dirk Nowitzki is German for Tom Chambers.
Maybe Jason Terry and Josh Howard should have been calling out Nowitzki. They carried this team during the playoffs with some help from Finley. Nowitzki should just shut his mouth.
Very true. Don't forget Stackhouse, even more so than Finley. Finley was off and on. If it weren't for Terry and Stackhouse they wouldn't have gotten out of the first round. That was a boneheaded play on defense by Terry though. I think he was just used to guarding the penetration so much that he let his mind slip and forget that Phoenix was going for 3. Bad time to let your mind slip though.
I think everyone's making too huge of a deal of Dirk. I think that calling out Dampier was merited. He definately should not have yelled at Terry like that, but c'mon we all lose our cool sometimes. What Terry did was pretty inexcusable. With time running out and down by 3, you HAVE to assume that they are going for a 3 pointer. You have to play up on Nash... to not even get a HAND in his face is pathetic, and Dirk has every right to be furious at Terry. I think going along with what francis4prez said, the playoffs exposed Dirk for his constant flopping and shot creation problems. A first team all NBA player should be able to create a makeable shot the vast majority of the time, however that just didn't seem to be the case with Dirk. He was outquicked by Marion and Tmac, and he didn't always have enough power to make up for his lack of quickness.
i'm not really relishing defending dirk, but this makes no sense. he's clearly a better player with nash on the court but he has his best regular season w/o nash? not having time to game plan doesn't mean anything unless teams had a great ability to game plan in past regular seasons. they didn't. all things being equal, he played the best ball of his career in his first season w/o nash. that wasn't really up for debate most of the year either. his game was better than it's ever been in the regular season and that was w/o nash. also, in past playoffs, it's been nash who has struggled and dirk who has been the one to step his game up another level (with several big rebounding and scoring games) so it's hard to argue dirk relied on nash. saying he needs nash in the playoffs but that he magically elevates his game over past regular seasons w/o him doesn't make sense. the main thing is he just didn't seem to be aggressive like normal, and lets face it, his shot was just off a lot of the time. plus, w/ or w/o nash, most teams don't have guys like marion and tmac to challenge his length while being much faster. the point is, this is surprising b/c he's done so well in the past in the playoffs and he did so well w/o nash so far. your theory doesn't explain it.
"Old School" fan, self procalimed. So all the "new" fans are Yao only or Tmac only fans. Wow. Some people here needs a diversity class of fans. Now, thread like that does bother me too. I agree there.
...lol...this has got to be funny. You guys slamming Dirk when you guys have the two biggest, overrated choke artist playing superstar in the league. Dirk lacks leadership? Well howmany times have Yao and T Mac been out of the first round? What kind of freaking superstars lose a playoff series after being up 2-0 and coming home? Then to emphasiz the p****** they are they get blown out by 40 in a game 7.
What in the world is the matter with everybody? Why all the hate for Dirk? I mean, really, you'd think he was the second coming of Malone. You know who the true enemy of Rockets fans is going to be over the next several years? Amare Stoudamire. Just watch- he WILL be the most hated non-Rocket by far. He's got all the attributes- great player, arrogant, has a personal vendetta against Ming and/or the Rockets, will make a dirty play at some point in the playoffs next year that will fuel our hatred, etc. Dirk? He just flops sometimes- but the guy's a good player who just had a meltdown. I've got no problems with Dirk at all. I mean, the guy's favorite player is McGrady- he's mentioned this several times in the past, and he's generally a respectful, non-dirty player. I think he just felt more of the pressure this year without Nash. Just can't dislike the guy. Great game for a 7-footer.
Dirk had some melt downs lately, but this doesn't mean he is not a good player. He kind of under performed this year in the playoffs. All in all, I feel it has more to do with how Mavs want to play than his abilities. He is a shooter, not a post player. He can dribble and get to the ring, but driving is not what he does best. Dirk is at his best when on open court and pull up for 3s. Even he struggled, but everytime he shot that pull up on the run, he is much more fluid and in control. It's when he posts up the flopping and whiniing comes out. I wonder why Mavs don't run some screens for him and let he get more open court oppurtunities. I guess that's not how mavs want to play this year. Of course his defense, especially help defense is nothing to write home about. However, if Rockets can find a player even remotely close to Dirk's class, man...
