With a shade under eight minutes to play in last night’s Wizards-Mavericks game at the Verizon Center in DC, Bradley Beal — in his first game of the season, after returning from injury — knocked down another three-pointer to give the Wizards an 85-84 advantage. At the same time, Dirk Nowitzki rolled his ankle on the back of Kris Humphries‘ foot. Dirk would leave, but the all-time leader in points scored by a foreign-born player would return and show why he’s a champion and future Hall of Famer.
Here’s the nasty ankle sprain as Dirk came into the paint to try and get a board on the Beal three-pointer. You can see he inadvertently steps on the back of Humphries’ foot and twists his ankle. He would leave the court hobbling and almost knock over an usher.
We can remember the days when people said Dirk was soft because he preferred to arc three-pointers at the hoop rather than bang down low like other power forwards of his size. But there aren’t many players tougher and Dirk would have his left ankle re-taped and return to the court four minutes later. After he re-entered, he didn’t shy away from the big shots, either.
Up 99-97 with 1:20 left, but with the Wizards lying in wait to steal the game at home, Nene showed hard on Dirk’s high screen for J.J. Barea — momentarily leaving Dirk open when he popped to Barea’s right. Barea smartly bounced it to Dirk, who turned to nail the three-point knife into the Wiz by putting Dallas up five with a little over one minute remaining.
Yes, Monta Ellis dropped 34 points (10/21) to help the Mavs overcome Bradley Beal’s 21 off the bench…
and Tyson Chandler had 16 rebounds and three blocks. Plus, Brandan Wright climbed the ladder for two of his 14 points. But it was Nowitzki, their leader, and his return from the twisted ankle, who led this team to the 105-102 road win.
Last night was a long cry from those days when the majority of NBA people thought Dirk was too soft — which is what most analysts thought about European imports — to be an NBA champion. After grabbing his MVP in 2007 and his Larry O’Brien trophy and Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award in 2011, Dirk silenced those often unfair critiques. Now — in his 17th NBA season — he’s just reiterating why he’s one of the greatest players of all time.
Is Dirk the greatest foreign-born player ever?
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