Is Dirk Nowitziki the best basketball player?

Again, the same theme emerges in the world of sports. This time the character is a basketball player named Dirk Nowitzki, a 7 foot NBA basketball player, born in Germany. I remember hearing about him when I lived in the Bay Area as the Warriors were interested in him. At the time, Coach Nelson and his son were recruiting him. As I recall, he was about 18 years of age and professional scouts were drooling over his talents. I believe he was drafted by the Dallas Maverick’s about 11 years ago. Anyway, the Dallas Mavericks have yet to win a NBA championship. This year they are leading the Oklahoma City team in the Western Conference finals. If they beat Oklahoma City then they go on to the NBA finals.

Dallas beat, in the playoffs, both Trailblazers and the Lakers so far. Dirk is a tremendous player and well skilled at his position. A few years ago, it might have been 2006; the Mavericks played the Miami Heat for the championship. The Mavericks were leading the series either two games to one or three games to one and looked like they were going to be the champions. However, Dwayne Wade and Shaq prevailed to win the championship. Of course, the sports writers put the blame on Dirk suggesting that he choked in that series.

Well this year, Dirk has been fantastic. In fact, in game one against Oklahoma he scored 48 points on 12 for 15 shooting and was perfect at the free-throw line with 24 out of 24. Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal in the May 23, 2011 issue pointed out that he is a 10 time All-Star, won an MVP, scored nearly 23,000 points, and propelled the Mavericks into the playoffs 11 straight years. This is the second longest streak in the league after Tim Duncan’s record.

The discussion by the sports people is can they recognize him as one of the top 10 players of all time or one of the best at his position. But, he has yet to win a championship. So unless you win a championship you cannot be elevated into the elite category. It doesn’t make a difference that they are talking about an individual player in a team sport. The sports guys like to argue about who is the best and about individual rankings. It also doesn’t matter when the players played the game, or whether the rules changed, the number of teams, or the caliber of players over the years. None of this seems to matter. These discussions go on year after year in high school, college, and professional sports. I was judged to be an All City football player at my position in the Detroit Public Schools in 1957. I admit I liked that subjective honor. Who likes to be judged?

What does this have to do with my book? Well, my book is about athletes. My book is about sports. But what do you really know about Dirk? What important information is gathered by the sports writers? After reading an article about Dirk, how much more enlightened am I?  However, if you read my book, It Has Nothing to do with Age, you will learn: 3. Information about unique and extreme sporting event activities and 4. How the thinking process affects achievement and performance.  I will keep on adding to this list of learning’s. My book is about life and learning.