A real gem here. Quality highlights of this guy are hard to find, and for good reason. Dirk Nowitzki managed to stick in the league just for a few years, only starting around 10 of the games where he didn’t get a DNP, which was often. Despite the predraft hype surrounding him, he was just another Euro who couldn’t really hack it in the big leagues, gone the way of Dragan Tarlac and Nikoloz Tskitishvili.
Which makes this particular performance even more startling. Outside shooting was one of his perceived strengths coming into the league, yes. But the perception never matched up to the reality with Dirk, and he struggled from every spot on the floor.
One glorious evening in January, though, he managed to put it all together. A mind-imploding 8 triples, plus a pair of huge driving dunks. It’s clear from the footage that the Seattle defense wasn’t taking him seriously even as he canned triple after triple in their faces. Why should they? I would have been too stunned to do anything except watch.
And so to will you.