The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Top 25 Players of Last 25 Years: Dirk Nowitzki is best shooting big man of all time

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

 Jason Timpf continues his ranking of the top 25 players in the last 25 years by revealing No. 10, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. Dirk is one of the greatest power forwards of all time, and cemented his legacy by winning the NBA Finals in 2011. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

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on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't forget that Amp is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. We're continuing our top 25 players the last 25 years today with number 10, Dirk Novitsky. Very, very excited. to talk about Dirk today. But we're also going to hit a little bit of the Steph Curry versus Magic Johnson debate that was going around last week. We'll hit that at the top and then we'll get to Dirk. You guys know the drill before we get started.

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So today we're doing the Steph Curry v. Magic Johnson debate. But underneath this video in the comments, I want you guys to drop mailbag questions about absolutely anything pertaining to the NBA and we'll pick one every single day to hit in addition to the players that were covering on the list. So drop some questions in the comment. So the Steph versus Magic Johnson debate. Basically the genesis of this was Steph Curry himself, declared himself the greatest point guard of all time. And then Michael Jordan got involved in this discussion. I believe through a text message to Stephen A. Smith that he believes Magic Johnson is clearly the greatest point guard of all time.

And I personally hate this discussion because to me, focusing on singular position groups to rank players doesn't make a a ton of sense. I think Gilbert Arrinas was the guy who put this best when he went on his show in the middle of this debate and basically said like, why aren't we including guys like LeBron or Nicola Yokic in this debate because they functionally act as the point guard for their team? Now, I don't agree with Gilbert in the sense that I wouldn't want to have a point guard debate with LeBron and Nicole Yokic in it because that doesn't make any sense to me either. But I think the larger point that he's hitting at and essentially talking about the positionless nature of basketball, And the fact that any star should have the basketball in their hands a lot and functionally act as a point guard for their team,

I think represents a better way to rank basketball players. So I would rather not focus on who's the best point guard or who's the best shooting guard, but rather who's the best perimeter shot creator for a team. I'll give you an example. Let's say we're talking about shooting guards. Who's the best shooting guard in the league right now? it's probably Devin Booker, right? If we go down my player rankings,

Nicole Yokic at number one was the center. Steph Curry at number two is a point guard. Yonis at number three is a power forward. KD. at 4 is a power forward or small forward. Embed's center, Anthony Davis center. Tatum, small forward, LeBron Power Forward. Luca Donchich, power forward, point, forward, point guard, depending on what you want to call him.

Devin Booker shooting guard. And then Kawhi Leonard power forward. So of my 12 bona fide superstars, I've got one shooting guard. So technically, Devin Booker is the best shooting guard in the league. But if I swapped Steph Curry in for Devin Booker and had him do all the exact same shit that he does for the Sons, the Sons immediately become a better basketball team. Why?

Because Steph can play shooting guard better than Devin Booker can play shooting guard. Because Steph is a very versatile basketball player that can fill any role. But even then, let's look at what that means. What does it mean to be a two guard in the NBA? At the two-guard position in the modern NBA, you're expected to run pick and rolls, run ISOs, maybe some post-ups if you've got a size advantage, gerbil handoffs, wide pin-downs, running the lanes in transition, spotting up and attacking closeouts. But those responsibilities are the same for every perimeter star.

I would argue that exact same list is fulfilled by LeBron James or Jason Tatum or Kevin Durant or Jimmy Butler, or Luca Donchish. You get the point. They're just basketball players, perimeter-oriented basketball players. Now, the ones that are bigger might use their size more and play a different style. Guys that are more skilled might lean on that more.

Obviously, they play differently, but they all feel the fundamental same role on a basketball team, which is creating shots for your team. And so I don't see any point in isolating point guard as a position group because there are a lot of players that don't technically play point guard,

but can do point guard stuff better than all the point guards do and basically do that for their team anyway. So the debate doesn't make any sense. I prefer to rank players based on two types. Those of you guys have been following the show for a while, know exactly where I'm going here. To me, you're either a perimeter-based shot creator as a star, or you are a center.

And that's basically it. Everybody kind of falls into those groups. The only guy that really I've seen that bridges that group, at the highest level is Nicole Yokic, because he's like legitimately a center, but you can't just deny him the ball or double team him out of a game the way you do with maybe Anthony Davis

and even Joel and Bede struggles with that a lot. If you do that, he can dribble the ball at the floor, and he can create offense for himself off a live dribble. So like, Yokic kind of bridges that gap, but outside of that, everybody kind of falls into one of those two groups, right? Like when I don't rank Tim Duncan, among perimeter players, typically, if I'm doing all-time lists.

Now, we're doing it for a top 25 list because I'm grouping them all-together for that list. But if I was doing just an all-time greatest players in NBA history, I'd prefer to split it into two lists. I want to rank all these perimeter guys, and I want to rank my centers. Let's talk Kareem, Duncan, right? Will Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal. Let's talk about those guys over here because they do something fundamentally different than what the perimeter players do.

and then let's rank the perimeter players over here. So from that lens, there is a debate to have about Steph Curry and Magic Johnson. Ironically, I have them right next to each other in the list. If you look at my list, I have Michael Jordan at number one, LeBron James at number two, Kobe Bryant at number three. So if I'm talking the greatest perimeter players of all time, I'm going MJ LeBron Kobe, one, two, three. At that point, the next three guys on my list are some combination of Magic Staff.

and Bird, right? It used to be Magic and Bird. Steph has entered into that conversation. But let's take a look at those three. Championships, Magic Johnson, 5. Steph Curry 4, Larry Bird 3. Finals MVP's, Magic 3. Steph 1, but should be 2, Larry Bird 2.

League MVP's, Magic 3, Steph 2, Larry Bird 3. First Team All-MBAs, Magic 9, Steph Curry for Larry Bird 9. Now, one of the big things that was going around last week I saw was people talking about supporting casts. I think that's ridiculous. I think all three of those guys, Bird Magic and Steph, all played on top-tier talented teams in their era. From basically 2015 to Kevin Durant leaving the Warriors after, like when Clay Thompson came back from the Achilles injury, they weren't the most talented team in the league anymore.

And we'll talk about that 2023 title in a little bit. But before that, from basically 2015 to 2019, the Warriors were either among the most talented teams in the league before they got KD and then became by far the most talented team in the league with KD. Like he won two titles with Kevin Duran on his team, right? So you're not going to sit here and complain about talent as a Warriors fan, right? Magic Johnson literally plays with, played with a six-time champion, and one of the all-time great players in NBA history,

the guy was the leading score before LeBron got there, Kareem Abdul-Shabaar. You know, Larry Bird played with Kevin McAil. Even in addition to that, they had star-level role players or guys who starred in their roles or lower-level stars, whatever you want to call him. That's Clay Thompson and that's Draymond Green. That's James Worthy and Byron Scott.

That's Dennis Johnson and Robert Parrish or Bill Walton coming off the bench in 1996, or 1986, right? All those teams were talented. So to me, that's irrelevant. You're splitting hairs if you're trying to talk about which team was better. The 1986 Celtics are resoundingly considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history. The 1987 Lakers are resoundingly considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history.

The 2017 and 2018 Warriors were literally the most talented rosters that have ever been assembled in NBA history. The 2016 Warriors without Kevin Durant won 73 games. You guys get the point. They won 67 games in 2008. talent is not related is not relevant here in my opinion except for that 2023 title which we'll get to in a little bit so in terms of real life actual accomplishments it's not close in my opinion between magic and step magic has more titles he has more finals mvps even if we give step 2015 which i do he has more mvps and he has more than twice as many first team all NBA selections so step does have to accomplish significantly more in my opinion to pass Magic Johnson. Now, Larry Bird is where it gets interesting. Steph has more titles,

should have the same number of finals MVPs. And I think the 2023 NBA championship, with Andrew Wiggins as his best player, his best teammate on his team, against the Celtics team that was significantly more talented than the Warriors, in my opinion. That accomplishment was greater, in my opinion, than anything Magic or Bird accomplished.

Now, it's not enough to make up the gap with Magic in my opinion, although it does make it close. But I do think it gives him the edge over Larry Bird. So when people ask me, who's the greatest point guard of all time, Magic Johnson or Steph Curry, I don't really have a take on that. If I had to pick a point guard, I'm taking LeBron because he kind of functionally played the role of a point guard. But even then you could say Michael Jordan did.

And he played point guard for the Bulls in the late 80s. So again, that whole conversation is just silly to me. but if I'm ranking the top perimeter players in NBA history, I'm going MJ at 1, LeBron at 2, Kobe at 3, Magic at 4, Steph at 5, and Bird at 6. That's where those guys land for me. That's just, again, everyone's going to have a different take on this. You're going to have a lot of traditionalists that are going to be like, screw that. A point guards, a point guard, a point guard.

We got to rank point guards. But then they want to conveniently leave out that Magic Johnson, like, straight up played center in the NBA finals. and that he played alongside a point guard who actually played point guard, you get the point. Like, it's just, all these things, it kind of goes back to what we were talking about with the Chris Paul situation. Like, anytime you set up criteria, there are holes, right?

My criteria has holes, your criteria has holes. And there are going to be guys who slip through the cracks and who are not properly rated in those situations. But for me personally, I don't like to rank by positions. I like to rank by just general archetypes of stars. You're either a perimeter star or you're a center. And for me, Steph and Magic are very close

among perimeter stars, but Magic has a clear edge to be the fourth best perimeter player of all time, in my opinion. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having kids, trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand-new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim?

Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jette. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's move on to our number 10, Dirk Novitsky. He's best player on a championship team with the 2011 MAPs, four-time first team all-MBA, 12-time all-MBA overall. We're going to start getting into some crazy resumes from now on. He was the MVP of the league in 2000. NBA Finals MVP in 2011. His prime I put down from 2001 to 2015, in that stretch,

Dirk Novitsky averaged 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists per game on 58% true shooting. And then in the playoffs, 25 points per game, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists per game on 58% true shooting. I think Dirk's claim to fame, the thing that we'll all remember him for, is that he's the best shooting big man of all time. When we think about shooters, obviously, we think about Steph, number one, Clay at number two, some combination of Reggie Miller, Ray Allen after that, right?

But those guys are all traditional perimeter players that you expect to be great shooters. When it comes to legitimate big men and their ability to shoot the basketball, it's Dirk. He's the guy that gets the recognition there. I think that Nicole Yokic has an opportunity to enter into that discussion in the long run, but even then he doesn't take enough jumpers in general, just in terms of volume, in my opinion, although he's very, very accurate in those situations. He also was one of the best scores of all time. Over his prime from 2001 to 2015,

he was second to Kobe Bryant in total points scored with 26,299. His archetype, just a seven-foot power forward. Never a great athlete, although he was a decent athlete when he was younger, but he was a master of manipulating defenders through leverage, which we'll get to in a little bit. I want to focus heavily in on the isolation situations and the post-up situation. So ISO situations for Dirk, generally speaking, were face-ups, right? So a face-up is going to be a triple threat, right?

So it hasn't used to dribble. He has an opportunity to dribble. Usually left foot, pivot foot. And for Dirk, usually right about the nail. They experimented with a bunch of different spots in his career, but they love to use Dirk at the nail. Now the nail is at the free throw line, right, right in the middle of the free throw line. The reason why they like to work with Dirk at the nail or at the top of the key,

somewhere between the nail and the top of the key is because it was harder for teams to double team. So we've talked about this a lot on the show. And there are advantages both ways. If you go clear side isos, you do have a lot of space to operate, but it's harder to beat teams with the skip pass, right? Because, so for instance, if I have the side cleared, like Jimmy Butler was doing with the heat, and he's working off the dribble, that skip pass to the corner is a really tough pass to make. And so teams can load up and load up the paint, although that's also hard spot to double team from, right? At the nail, everywhere is one pass away, right?

I'm not making a skip pass to the corner. I can throw it to the corner, throw it to the corner, throw it to the wing, throw it to the dunker. So it's actually a harder spot to double team out of, but it's also a much harder position to play offensively. The reason why is you have to have really good awareness of the entire floor looking both ways. So if I have my back to the basket and I'm looking this way, I can't see this side of the floor, right? Whereas if I'm on a clear side ISO and there's nobody over there and it's just me on the last, left side of the floor, I can look this way and see the entire floor and kind of survey all nine other players, right? So it's a harder pass to make from that side of the floor, but it is actually

easier to make reads. But if you have a player who is smart enough and can see the floor well enough to make reads from the middle of the floor, that is the hardest spot to double team from. And every pass is a quick little rifle pass away. Nicole Yokic has been destroying the NBA with this for years now. He catches in the middle of the floor. And there are so many players that catch in the middle of the floor and they can't functionally see everything well enough to make reads. Yokic can't. Dirk could as well. So he liked to work from the nail because when he was in his triple threat, if any team shaded over from any side, it was an easy pass to somewhere on the floor to kill the defense for that specific mistake.

But that face up from the nails, where we're starting from. everything, the foundational great skill for Dirk, obviously shooting like we talked about, but from the standpoint of isolation skill, it was his ability to get that jump shot off with just the tiniest bit of space. Dirk leaned back on his jump shot and had a very high release. And so even if you were up in his space, he could just kind of bump you with his shoulder a little bit and then quick lean back and get enough separation to knock that shot down. That forced defenders to literally get right up into his edge.

airspace. So when Dirk would catch at the foul line, dudes were like literally putting their chest on his shoulder. From there, everything is about using his attack foot. His attack foot is his right foot. So if he's got his left foot as his pivot foot, he's leaning into you with that right foot to then try to lean back to take the shot. Or if you're pressing too far up on him, once he gets that attack foot past your foot, so imagine the defensive player has his right foot up here. Once Dirk gets his foot past him, he's by him at that point. He can use a little chicken wing and he's all the way to the rim. So with Dirk, he would get you into his airspace with the threat of the jump shot and then use leverage to go around you using that attack foot. And so Dirk

would get a ton of dribble penetration. Being a guy who's not a great athlete, a guy that you would think like, oh, I'm going to put Eudonis Haslam on him. He's going to slide his feet and be able to keep him in front. No. Because Eudonis has to be up into his space to take. away the jump shot, and as soon as he does that, Dirk can feel where his body's at. Everything about this, the ISO and the post-up stuff with Dirk, is all about feeling the body. If he's got his back to the basket and the dude's leaning heavy on this shoulder, he's pivoting this way. If he's leaning heavy on this shoulder, he's pivoting that way. In the drive, when he's in a face-up situation, if you're up in his space and he can get that

attack foot past your foot, he's going around you. but if you stay back to stop that attack foot, he's leaning back and taking a jump shot. And it just made him completely unguarded. Because again, like you had to concede something. And a lot of the biggest shots in Dirk's career were conundrums that he put defenders in because they didn't know which of those two to go with. Even though I would argue the biggest shot of Dirk's career, that game two game winner against the heat in the 2011 finals.

and we're going to talk about that shot a few times here. That shot was a drive. Greatest shooting big man of all time. Biggest shot of his career was a driving left-handed layup. He ripped through to the right. Dirk loved to go left. Even when he would start right, he would spin back left. And again, like that spin, that little bit of leverage with his shoulder

was important to him because he wasn't a great athlete. So he had to beat people with leverage. But he caught the ball against Bosch. They're on that left extended elbow. And he ripped through to the right. and then when Bosch slid, he spun back to the left and went all the way to the rim with that left-handed layup. So getting him the ball at the nail or near the top of the floor, what was really difficult to double team, weaponizing the shot to force guys to press up into his body and then using leverage to go past him.

Out of the post, it was a very similar type of situation. He preferred the right block. He would almost always go to his right shoulder because he had a really good right shoulder fade away. Again, like right-handed players love to shoot over their right shoulder. He would just kill teams making this little right shoulder fade away at like 60% clip, which was insane. But if anybody ever reached behind to go for the basketball, he's just going all the way to the rim for a left-handed layup. If you got out of position at all whatsoever, he's going around you. And so he just put teams in a really difficult predicament with how good he was at driving to the basket to compensate for his jump shot.

crowning achievement for Dirk Novitsky. The 2011 championship run. It was a perfect encapsulation of everything that Pekke Dirknavinsky could do well. His jumper was completely locked in. He shot 50% on catch-and-chute jump shots in that playoff run, 60% when you wait it for threes. 51% on dribble jump shots, 52% when you waited for threes. So he literally made more than half of every jump shot he took.

That's just dead-eye shooting in the playoffs. Barbecued every defender he faced in the playoff on 28 points and 8 rebounds, on 61% true shooting, went through the Lakers, the Thunder, and the heat, so he went through Kobe, KD, and LeBron, was absolutely off the charts good in clutch situation. So when the score was within five, with less than five minutes left, he was 15 for 28 from the field, three for five from three, 33 for 34 from the line. So just dead eye locked in when the game was on the line. He had 66 total clutch points in the playoff run.

LeBron was second place in that playoff from with 43, so he had 23 more clutch points than anyone else in that playoff front. In the NBA finals against a heat team that was heavily favored, he was 8 for 13 in clutch situations. So eight makes and five misses. One for two from three, nine for nine at the line. The Mavs were plus 18 and 18 clutch minutes with dark on the floor. There were three big moments in that series that I've,

want to hit on. He hit the game winner in game two. Again, that's been move on Bosch. Like we said, kind of cleared side. Actually, it wasn't a clear side. He was shooter in the corner. I think it was Jason Terry in the corner, if I remember correctly. But yeah, because he set like a wide pin down for Dirk to get up to the top of the floor and LeBron couldn't help out of the corner anymore. He does a hard rip through the right, spin back to the left, left-handed layup. Game four. By the way, and by the way, Dirk finished game two on a nine to two run by himself. And that was the crazy comeback game. Remember, the Heat were up 15.

D. Wade was doing the celebration in front of the Mavs bench. It's a big comeback win for the Mavs. Game 4. Now, this is a pivotal game in the series because after the Heat Blue Game 2, they went into Dallas in one game 3. Dwayne Wade was incredible in that game. They go up 2-1 in the series. So in game 4, the Mavericks have the ball up by 1

with 29 seconds left. It was 82 to 81. There's a five-second gap between the game clock. and the shot clock. So if the heat get a stop, they have a chance to go down and score and win the game. They run the exact same type of play that they ran in game two. They actually, in this game, in this game, the heat go with Eudanus Haslam on Dirk. Same sort of situation. They put Jason Terry in the right corner. Again, instead of going from the left elbow, this time Dirk's going from the right elbow, they put LeBron, they stashed LeBron away in the opposite corner, or in the

strong side corner with Jason Terry on him. LeBron's not going to help because Jason Terry was dead eye in that situation. And in this case, Udana's Haslam is heavy overplaying the left shoulder, which is taking away Dirk's jump shot. But again, like we talked about, Dirk always weaponized that leverage against the defender. So Eudanus is taking away the jumper, but he's literally giving a right-hand drive.

And it's funny because he rips through to the right, and you can actually hear, I think it was Jeff Aungundi on the broadcast complaining like he's going too early. He's going too early. But Eudonis was giving him a layup. and Dirk didn't give a shit because if he makes a layup, they go up three, it's a, you're safe.

Now they can't beat you. They can only send the game to overtime, right? So he rips through to the right. LeBron doesn't help. Bosch opts to box out Dirk, Tyson Chandler instead of go for the block, and Dirk gets an easy layup to put them up by three. Mike Miller ends up fumbling a,

or Dwayne Wade ends up fumbling the game tying possession, throws it to Mike Miller, he throws up a prayer and he airballs it and the series is tied at two. Significant swing, that game, Dirk just getting an easy basket. That's always the dead giveaway. It's like Nicole Yokic in game four against the Lakers this year,

113, 113, and he just makes it look easy to get a basket against Anthony Davis. When a guy is scoring easy in huge leverage situations, that's always a sign that you've mastered the game. And then in game six, Dirk scores 10 points in the fourth quarter to execute the heat win his first title. each of the five baskets had a little bit of that Dirk flair to it, right? First one is a double pick and roll with Tyson Chandler. Jason Terry's running it with Tyson Chandler setting the screen and with Dirk set in the screen.

Dirk pops, Tyson rolls. Jason Terry throws a really nice pass, hits Dirk. Eudanis is just a touch slow to close out, knocks down the jumper. After that, a right block post up. Same type of thing we were talking about. He's posting up on that right block, left-handed dribble, Udonus is guarding him. Udanaus just barely reaches, just barely reaches, and then changes his mind and pulls back.

But in that split second where he went like this, Dirk just went right around him. It was crazy how good he was at reading that body leverage stuff. Goes right to the basket, makes a left-handed layup. Then there was this crazy play where Chandler gets the ball in a broken play right around the nail, and Dirk is kind of relocating above him, and he pitches it back to Dirk, and Chris Bosch is like all over the place, spun in circles, tries to close out, but then Dirk just hits him with a one dribble pull-up and knocks it down. Just beautiful one-dribble pull-up.

Just hits nothing but net. And then the last one is the one we all remember. The left elbow ISO against Chris Bosch, cleared side this time. Bosch just smothers him along the left baseline, literally walls him up like this. And Dirk pump fakes and then literally just kind of bumps Bosch and then leans to his left and makes a jump shot. just a ridiculous shot. Then he got a garbage time layup in pick and roll after the heat had already quit. If you remember in that game,

Dirk had demoralized the heat so much that they weren't even boxing out in the final minutes, and the Mavs just kept getting offensive rebounds. But it was a little bit of everything that made Dirk great, showing up on the biggest stage as they upset the Miami Heat to win Dirk's first NBA championship. One hell of a crowning achievement. One of the most impressive playoff runs in NBA history. Biggest what if. I have two for Dirk Novitsky.

Number one, what if the Mavs got a better whistle in the 2006 finals? So if you remember, the 2006 Mavs went 1622. Dirk was third in MVP voting. By the way, LeBron James at age 21 was second MVP voting that year. It's crazy how good he was when he was young. The Mavs take a 2-0 lead in the finals. And they were up by 13 points with six minutes left in the fourth quarter of game three. But Dwayne Wade goes on a crazy run to tie it,

and Gary Payton hits the pull-up jump shot that puts him up by two. and then Dirk actually ends up getting fouled and misses, it makes the first but misses the crucial second free throw, and then they end up losing, right, two games to one. But that starts a run where the heat win four games in a row and they actually steal that title from the Mavs. But here's the thing. Dwayne Wade attempted an astonishing 73 free throws

over the final four games of that series. There's a lot of conspiracy theories about what may or may not have been taking place, but there's no doubt that he got a good whistle. Two things are true in this situation. One, the Mavs could not guard Dwayne Wade. He was way too quick for them. No one could keep him in front off the dribble, so he was constantly flying downhill. He's also just an incredible athlete, and he fell down a lot.

So it was a very difficult player to officiate. There's no doubt. But he also got a lot of calls. So I think there's a version of that story where Wade gets a tighter whistle. The Mavs get the benefit of the doubt on some of those calls, and they have a better chance to win that series. So number one, what if they get a different whistle in 06? Do the Mavs have two titles?

Number two, what if the Mavs had kept Tyson Chandler after the 2011 finals? Tyson Chandler's rim protection played a huge role in the 2011 championship. The Mavs were eighth in defense that year, and they were the third best defense in the league at protecting the paint. But they let the Nix post-Poge Tyson-Changler in a three-team trade, three-team sign-in trade, I should say. Tyson goes on to anchor a really good Knicks team for the next couple of years, and those were the best Nix team. of that decade, which I think Tyson played a big part in. And then the Mavs just slide their backup, Brandon Haywood, back into that starting position. They also made a move for Vince Carter, which was something that didn't really pay off.

He didn't play very well for them, although he did hit a huge buzzer beating three at one point in a playoff game. But they were the third worst defense in the 2012 playoffs, and they got swept by OKC. So it kind of sucks that they immediately got rid of their defensive anchor right after winning a championship and they didn't really have a legitimate chance to defend their title, which is frustrating. So that's another big what-if. What if they had kept Tyson-Chaylor? Do they win the 2012 championship? Or at least, do they have a rematch with Miami? Do we have a chance for LeBron to redeem himself in those situations? Right. So another big what-if in Dirk Novitsky's career.

All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We will be back tomorrow with number nine. Don't forget to drop a mailback question in the comments, and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel

help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get, your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

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