Dallas Mavericks: Happy Birthday Dirk Nowitzki

14. 29 in the 4th Against Utah

Every once and awhile in history, you have players that just always seem to have their best games against a certain opponent. Unfortunately for the Utah Jazz, that domination didn’t really stop after Michael Jordan retired.

For his career, it seems like Dirk has always had the number of the Jazz. No matter how he was playing up to that point, he would find a way to drop big numbers on this team. Case in point: November 3, 2009.

13. First Career Bucket

On February 5, 1999, Dirk Nowitzki sunk two free throws to begin the scoring for his career. They were the only points of the game for the Big German and fans continued to wonder what he would do with his career.

Dirk Nowitzki now has over 29,000 career points. Just watch the first few seconds to see his very first NBA free throw.

12. Flu Game 4

There are very few individual performances in NBA history that compare to MJ’s flu game. Jordan claims to have been so sick he could barely stand up before the game and needed an IV before and at half time just to make it through.

Now I’m not saying that Dirk’s performance was as impressive as Jordan’s, but it may have been equally important. Game 4 of the NBA Finals after going down 2-1, the Mavs needed a win or they were as good as done. To top it all off, Dwyane Wade and Lebron James thought they could joke a little about Dirk’s sickness. Big mistake.

If you have 6 minutes to spare and don’t mind getting chills, watch this full video here.

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