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Special to ESPN.com |
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It's all true. True that they have dissimilar names and games. True that they square off at tipoff only twice a year. True again that such infrequency is twice as often as you'll find their hometowns on the same map. But that's not the whole truth. Truth is: Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki will always be linked, wherever they are, 82 games a season. Even if they don't exactly hail from neighboring 'hoods.
It's not just on nights when their teams meet, like Monday night, the first of two biannual summits on the schedule for the Celtics and Mavericks. Game nights merely highlight the Pierce-Nowitzki story, which is truly a doozy. Nowitzki, you see, belongs to Dallas, where the basketball public openly pined for Pierce during the 1998 NBA Draft. Pierce, meanwhile, slipped from consensus top-three status all the way to Boston, whose management built its '98 draft strategy around nabbing Nowitzki. Nowitzki went ninth, Pierce at No. 10. Two seasons and two months into the convoluted tale, a new truth has emerged. Both teams scored big. Bigger than every team that picked before them except maybe Toronto scoring Vince Carter.
"I think either franchise is very lucky," said Celtics general manager Chris Wallace. "We are thrilled about our guy and they're thrilled about theirs." The teams will be reminded how thrilled when they meet at the FleetCenter. The Mavericks arrive in the midst of a stunning 16-10 start, and Nowitzki -- along with the surging Steve Nash -- is the main reason. Those two have helped the solo-no-more Michael Finley put Dallas on its first playoff pace since the 1989-90 season, when the German was 11. Boston isn't quite so giddy, at 9-14 and with the Rick Pitino regime steadily unraveling, but things could be so much worse if not for Pierce. Especially when the Celtics' already-frustrated fans see what Nowitzki has become. As a rookie, Nowitzki had to hear Pierce's name on a near-daily basis. The Mavericks' dwindling fan based raged for months when Don Nelson, with the opportunity to snare a fast-sliding Pierce, swung two draft-day deals on June 24, 1998 -- landing Nowitzki from Milwaukee and his new best friend, Nash from Phoenix. Nelson boldly predicted Rookie of the Year hardware for the silky 7-footer, only for Nowitzki to average just 8.2 points on 40.5-percent shooting in Year 1. All while Nash was struggling mightily, too, and while Pierce was finishing runner-up to Carter in the Rookie race. Now? Nellie's a genius again. Nowitzki is suddenly seen as sure-fire future All-Star, potentially as early as this February, given how he has taken so many steps forward just since last season. Mere months removed from a sophomore campaign that placed him second in Most Improved Player balloting to Jalen Rose, Nowitzki has further boosted his scoring (17.5 to 19.2 ppg) and board work (6.5 to 8.2 rpg). He's shooting the ball better from outside than any 7-footer ever seen. He's starting fast breaks himself after pulling down rebounds, rambling downcourt on the dribble in the mold of Magic Johnson. He's also gradually refining a low-post game that, when in place, will bring the grand vision of Nelson and son Donnie -- a rarely credited driving force behind The Drafting Of Dirk -- to full fermentation. "Every game, he seems to get better at something else," Don Nelson gushed. "In another year or two, you will be able to talk about Dirk Nowitzki in the same breath as any player in the league."
Which would be another body blow to the Celtics if not for their own draft nugget. Pitino, to this day, insists that he only came to Boston because he was sure he'd land the No. 1 lottery pick needed to select Tim Duncan in 1997. When that didn't happen, he arranged a secret scouting junket to Rome the following spring to meet with Nowitzki and hash out the arrangement that would bring Boston its new Larry Bird. Strike two. The Mavericks had concurrently schemed a Bavarian raid of their own.
Amazingly, Pierce was still there for them. Michael Olowokandi, Mike Bibby, Raef LaFrentz, Antawn Jamison, Carter, Robert "Tractor" Traylor, Jason Williams, Larry Hughes and Nowitzki were the players selected, in order, ahead of No. 34. Do that draft over again and Pierce is no worse than No. 3 -- or maybe a coinflip for that spot ever since Jamison began believing he's Bernard King. "We certainly got a caliber of player that we had no business getting," Wallace admits. Just a swingman who averages 22.6 points, who earns almost as many trips to the free-throw line as Shaquille O'Neal and Jerry Stackhouse and who -- oh, yeah -- survived multiple stab wounds from a nightclub knifing a week before training camp. To come back driving the ball to the basket more than ever. Pierce's recovery? "It's close to miraculous," Wallace said. No argument here. Not us. Not with Wallace. Not after he went on to share that he starts every morning the same way, scanning box scores line by line. You can probably guess which non-Celtic name he almost always looks for first. True story: It's Nowitzki. Thus, Wallace indeed noticed Wednesday when Pierce and Nowitzki had horrendous nights on the same night. Dirk was an unfathomable 1-for-10 from the floor in Dallas' 97-92 loss at Indiana. Paul was 0-for-7 in Boston's humiliating 104-86 home setback to Chicago. Told you it's a strong bond. Sufficiently far-reaching to repeatedly link one kid off the mean streets of Inglewood, Calif., with an import from the velvety green folds of Wurzburg, Germany. Safe to say those 'hoods have never intersected before. "They're like cousins," Wallace joked.
Around The League Not that anyone should be surprised that the Celtics look so uninspired, in spite of Pierce's efforts. When Pitino tells them, more than once, that everyone might be better off if he resigns, it's only a matter of time before the kids believe it. Telling your own players that you're thinking about quitting -- again and again -- is only inviting them to quit first. Quirky twist on mutiny, isn't it? Forget those player revolts in Seattle and Denver. In Boston, the allegedly increasing uncoachability of the modern athlete can't generate headlines like the coach/adult/authority figure who isn't sure if he wants to keep his job. This should have been a season to celebrate Pierce's return from a horrific attack, a near-death experience, and that we still get to see him every day. Instead, all we hear is how Pitino wants to see more defense out of him.
Marc Stein, who covers the NBA for The Dallas Morning News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. |
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