Is Dirk a Superstar?

Alright, I actually broke out a tiny bit of research to help my argument that Dirk is in fact a Superstar. Some of you may be saying, "No kidding, jackass." But, surprisingly, here in Dallas and around the fandom of the NBA, this seems up for debate.

People seem to hold the fact that Dirk hasn't won a championship, combined with the fact that his TEAM choked in the finals (with the obvious help from some terrible officiating - this is not an excuse and not up for debate to anyone who can see without bias - It wasn't the officiating alone, but it certainly played a part) and against the Warriors the following year.

To counter this, I'd have to point out the supporting cast, or complete lack there of, surrounding Dirk. So, let's start there:

Going back to when Dirk first became a factor on the floor in the 2000 or 2001 season, how many All-Stars has he shared the court with. Here's the list:

2000- Finley
2001- Finley
2002- Nash
2003- Nash
2004- NONE
2005- NONE
2006- NONE
2007- Howard
2008- NONE

Let's look at some of those. The two years Finley was an All-Star he was the leader of that team. Dirk was just coming into his own and was considered a supporting player to Finley. Also, the Mavs were yet to become a playoff team.

2002-03 - Nash comes into form as Dirk does. They were both very young and made the playoffs for the first time. Sadly, until today (1/18/09) this was probably the best supporting cast for a young Dirk with an All-Star in Nash and a still viable but fading Finley. If you hold these playoff failures (which weren't considered failures at all by the franchise at the time) then you must hold someone like Chris Paul and David West to the same standard.

2004-2005-2006 - Including the year the Mavs played themselves to the Finals, Dirk was without a single All Star worthy teammate. If you want a comparison, how many Finals did Garnett get to without Pierce and Allen (or for that matter, Pierce or Allen without the others)? How many Finals did Kobe get to without Shaq until last year when Pau came on board along with what is considered one of the deepest benches of all time?

In fact, since 2000 only two teams have won a Finals with only one player playing in the All Star game. They were the '03 Spurs and '04 Pistons...and these are both very misleading facts. The Spurs' only All Star was Duncan on a team with David Robinson (his final season- with the motivation of that announcement prior to the season), Tony Parker (in his 2nd season), a blossoming Ginobli, and a clutch Stephen Jackson.

The Pistons' only All Star was Ben Wallace. Yet, that team consisted of All Star talent much like the Spurs of the year before and included Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Prince and Rip Hamilton.

Back to Dirk's support - in 2007 the Mavs finally had an All Star not named Dirk in Josh Howard. Yet, Howard was an injury replacement and was widely considered to have only made the team due to the Mavs holding the best record in the league. A worthy All Star, perhaps. Rightfully so (for the regular season), this was the year Dirk took home the MVP trophy.

2008, the Mavs acquired Jason Kidd, who made the All Star team, but Kidd was not yet a Mav and it would be hard to argue that he played at an All Star level once joining the Mavs (for reasons that are highly debatable).

Based on the above, you could very easily argue that Dirk has done as much and possibly more than anyone in the modern era (2000 to current) to carry his team to success.

For one quick final argument, I'll let a few players career numbers make the case for Dirk being a great player:

Dirk Nowitzki: 22.6 pts, 8.6 Reb., 2.7 assists, 1.0 blk, 0.9 stl, 1.0 TO, 48%FG,
38% 3pt

Kobe Bryant: 25.1 pts, 5.3 Reb., 4.6 assists, 0.6 blk, 1.5 stl, 2.9 TO, 48%FG,
34% 3pt

Kevin Garnett: 20.3 pts, 11.1 Reb, 4.3 assists, 1.3 blk, 1.4 stl, 2.5 TO, 49.5%FG,
28.2% 3pt

Tim Duncan: 21.5 pts, 11.8 Reb, 3.2 assists, 2.4 blk, 0.8 stl, 2.8 TO, 50.8%FG,
18.9% 3pt

I was going to include Jordan, but it's not really fair to compare anyone to him. As you can see from the above stats, Dirk compares nicely with some of the widely acknowledged best players of the current generation (at least, until Lebron reaches his potential)...including someone (Duncan) who many will argue is the best PF of all time.

Dirk may not be as graceful as we'd like our superstars to be and may not show the pure displays of athleticism of a Jordan or Kobe (unless you count the ability to simply put the ball through the net). In fact, he may often appear to be clumsy and out of control (until the ball once again goes through the net), but to argue that he is not a true superstar is either ignorance, naivety, or unadulterated bias.