Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A funny thing happened when Dirk Nowitzki drilled a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter that cut Utah’s lead to just three points — he heard cheers.
In fact, the Dallas veteran heard those for much of the night.
They came when he was introduced in the Maverick's starting lineup. He heard them when he made back-to-back buckets in the first and, really, every other time he made a shot in his 6-of-14 performance
The man Utah fans had loved to hate for much of his career was warmly greeted in what may have been his final game in Salt Lake City.
And he had some vintage Dirk moments: turnaround fadeaways, high arcing 3-pointers and his trademark three-finger celebration. He played a season-high in minutes (25) and scored a season-high in points (15) — and he was cheered for nearly every one of them. It wasn’t thunderous applause, more respectful clapping, but he heard it.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s been wonderful,” Nowitzki said. “Getting a reception in a lot of road cities, it’s been humbling. I’m very appreciative of what’s going on. It’s emotional at times.”
And he had special reason to be emotional in Salt Lake City.
The city was the site of the Mavericks’ first-round upset over the Jazz way back in 2001.
Back when Dallas was a young upstart team with a couple of young soon-to-be superstars and Utah was trying to take advantage of the final John Stockton and Karl Malone years. That series turned into a coming-out party of sorts for Nowitzki and a new era of Maverick basketball.
Dallas came into Utah — after Nowitzki called Utah a “bad city” earlier in the series no less — and beat the Jazz in win-or-go-home Game 5.
“Amazing, amazing times back then when the Mavs hadn’t been in the playoffs for a long, long time,” Nowitzki said. “Being part of that turnaround with Nashy (Steve Nash) and Mike (Finley), that was awesome. We lose both games here and go down 0-2 but then come back against Stockton and Malone.
“I remember when Malone missed that last shot, I was running around full-court like we won the championship, but that was a first-round series. By the time the second round came around, we got hammered by San Antonio.”
Utah’s Jae Crowder got to see Nowitzki’s playoff intensity first hand. Crowder started his career in Dallas and during his rookie year, he was a little nervous for his first playoff game. He was going to play and was expected to contribute. But there was another rookie on the team that wasn’t. That rookie was feeling a little light-hearted before the contest and Nowitzki didn’t like that.
“He laid into him right there pregame: ‘We are trying to win an (expletive) playoff game’” Crowder said. “I was like “Oh (shoot), this is for real.’ it just shows how competitive he is and how much he cares and how much he prepares. It was all business. That was one of the moments you rarely see from Dirk, but it came out there.”
And on Saturday, a moment happened that you rarely see from a Jazz crowd: cheering an opponent. But for Nowitzki, they made an exception.
“There still hasn’t been anyone like him,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder. “Watching him through the course of his career, you’ve been treated.”
