Dirk Nowitzki talks about his recent play, opting out this summer and sneakers
Why are you going through this stretch right now where you're just as effective as any four in the league?
I wish we would have won a few
more of those games, but yeah, I think honestly the All-Star break was
for me. To basically have a week of relaxing, I went to the beach this
time and really just put my legs up. Got a little workout in in the
morning when I got up, just to stay in shape, stay ready, and that
really helped me, even though the first game out of the break was ugly,
in Orlando. But since then, I've had a pretty decent rhythm, feel good
and hopefully I can keep it up here during these last few weeks of the
season. With Parsons out, we're going to need everyone to play well
obviously, to play at a high level to sneak into the playoffs.
How tough was it to find out about Parsons' season-ending injury?
We found out Wednesday then I
called him and he was crushed. He was crushed. I felt really bad for him
because last year he had a major surgery and seeing him every day in
the summer how hard he worked. And then working through the frustrations
at the beginning of the season when he was on minutes restrictions and
it wasn't going so well, to see him basically work through that, work
through frustrations, and probably the last two, two and half months,
playing some of the best basketball of his career, being active, making
shots, making plays for us off the dribble, off the pick-and-roll, he
was posting some other smaller guys, I think he was just playing
all-around game for us. He was really frustrated and I think the team
was really sad for him but this is hopefully a smaller, minor thing and
hopefully in a few weeks he can already start working out again and feel
good about his season next year. I think we're all bummed for him but
as a team we're in the midst of a playoff battle without him so
obviously we had to move on and get the job done.
What do you have to focus on to make the playoffs?
The margin of error is slim
with our team, obviously. Sometimes against those better teams we give
up a lot of athleticism, we give up some talent that other guys have.
We've got to play a solid game. Last night (against the Blazers), I felt
like we gave up too many turnovers, we didn't get to some 50/50 balls,
we had some bad bounces. I feel like for us to win against those good
teams on the road, a lot of guys have to play well, got to play solid
defensively, got to rebound the ball well. Every turnover, it seems
like, since we're a smaller team, every turnover seems to be a layup on
the other end, so we've got to be solid defensively and try to get at
least a good shot up every time. We've just got to be sharp in a lot of
areas to squeeze in down the stretch.
If the Mavericks go into a rebuilding mode, would you consider going somewhere else?
You know, that's something I'll
focus on this summer. I'm in the midst of chasing the playoffs here and
trying to play well and compete every night. That's something we'll
revisit this summer. Obviously I still have a year on the contract, I
could choose to opt out, I think that's in the contract, but honestly I
haven't really spent a lot of thought on that at all. I really want to
make the playoffs bad. I think our fanbase deserves that. It's always a
fun part of the year when it's warm out, when the competition is high,
so we'd love to be a part of that. Everything else we can come together
and talk about after. There's just not enough thought put into that
right now. Hopefully we can squeeze in and make the playoffs and we can
talk about all that later.
How does it make you feel that your teammates feel like they have an obligation to you to get you to the playoffs?
It's nice to me to go to the
playoffs, but like I said, it's also nice for the fan base. We've been
basically, my entire career, we've only missed the playoffs a couple
times. The first was when I had knee surgery and other than that,
besides my first two years, we've always made the playoffs, we usually
win 50 games. We kind of want to give that to the fan base as well. So
that's what we're working on. With Parsons, I agree. It's not like he
had surgery and whatever so he could come back for the playoffs, to miss
the most fun time of the year twice is a row is even more devastating
for him, and that's why he was so bumped last week, to miss back-to-back
the prime time, crunch time of the season. But he's young. He's only
27. Hopefully he'll recover quick from that and he won't have any
problems the rest of his career.
Should the go for the record 73 wins in a season?
That's a tough call, that's a
tough call. I think if you're this close, you should go for the record.
That's a season for the ages. That
team was obviously the best in history, but they're right there. I know
they're a little banged up now, with Iguodala missing the last two
games, but that's a tough call, that's a tough call. But God, if you're
so close to making history, I'd probably give it a shot. The playoffs in
the West can be a grind and there's a bunch of tough teams, so it's a
tough call, but we'll see what they do.
Are you a big sneakers guy and if so what's your favorite?
That's funny, there's a reason I
don't really give a lot of interviews about that because I couldn't
really care less. I do have some sneakers at home that I love and
sometimes I wear some old pair in and they're all green like I just cut
the lawn and the whole team's killing me, like, "Throw these out, you've
had these since your rookie year." I'm not the guy has 200, 300 pairs
at home. I just wear my pair, I still have some Jordans, (Finley) gave
me some my second or third year in the league, when I broke those out
the other day I absolutely got murdered, so you know, material things
don't mean that much to me and never really have. I can go throw a game,
spend a whole game guarding somebody, and after the game somebody will
ask me, "Did you see what kind of shoes that guy was wearing?" and I'd
be like, "No, I didn't at all, it didn't even cross my mind to look at
his frickin' shoes." That's just not my style.
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