Dallas Mavericks: The 41 greatest moments of Dirk Nowitzki’s career

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NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 15: Dirk Nowitzki #4, Klay Thompson #11 and Stephen Curry #30 of the Western Conference All-Stars celebrate during the 2015 NBA All-Star Game as part of the 2015 All-Star Weekend at Madison Square Garden on February 15, 2015 in New York, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2015 NBAE (Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images) /

35. Game 7 2003 NBA Playoffs vs. Blazers

Dirk was great in fun and exciting moments throughout his career, but he was at his best when the pressure was on. The first round of the 2003 NBA playoffs is one of the best examples of that. Despite going up 3-0 in the series, the Blazers battled back and won 3 straight against Dallas, including a 22-point beat down in game 6 where Dirk was completely ineffective. Well, Dirk wasn’t going to have anymore of that.

34. Alley-oop from Steph Curry

In the 2015 NBA All-Star game, Dirk Nowitzki was a reserve. This was the last All-Star game that Dirk was voted into during his career, but he was also having a successful season up to that point. That said, 2015 Dirk was really only about a step faster than 2019 Dirk. That’s why it was so awesome when Steph found Dirk rolling to the basket and put the ball right where he needed it.

33. Dirk’s final dunk

The fact that Dirk’s only two dunks of his final season came in the last five games of the year should tell you just how amazing it was to witness the final one. People tend to forget that Dirk was actually a pretty emphatic dunker for a big part of his career. He changed his game a little more than halfway into his career to increase the longevity, but he could dunk. And it looks like he still can.

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32. Three-point contest champion 2006

Dirk is the smoothest shooting big man in NBA history and no one will ever be able to convince me otherwise. At 7-foot, Nowitzki was a guard in a big man’s body, which scared a lot of teams prior to his draft. Luckily, it didn’t scare Don Nelson and the Mavs. Dirk proved to be not only the best big man shooter, but one of the best shooters in the game, period. This is evidenced by his three-point contest title in 2006 and his top 3 finish in 2000, 2001 and 2008.

31. 29 points in the 4th

Nowitzki has provided Mavericks fans and NBA fans in general with countless highlights and big moments. Many of those great moments just so happened to come against the Utah Jazz. For some reason, Dirk always seemed to play his best games against Utah and perhaps the best evidence of that was this game on November 3, 2009. Dirk wasn’t having a great game…until he needed to step up in the 4th.

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