Dirk Nowitzki the soft-spoken German NBA legend has one of the most legendary NBA titles in history. A true underdog tale that still is set as the benchmark of what an NBA title should be. But before that, he lost in 2006 and that loss put him in a blender.
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Of course, we can sympathize with him. Watching your team lose an NBA Finals matchup, after being up 2-0 must be tough to swallow. And what’s more, it was Dwyane Wade that single-handedly did it all. Shaquille O’Neal, despite weighing a slim 325lbs, was in a bit of a downturn and posted rather sad numbers.
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Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade beat Dirk in 2006
Of course, the real story is how the Mavericks were simply overrun by the brilliance of Dwyane Wade. But Nowitzki was in the form of his life. He had done stuff like this:
Game 7 of the 2006 WCSF, Dirk Nowitzki puts the team on his back to close out the series with 37 pts 15 reb! pic.twitter.com/bzOKcTGaTB
— ThrowbackHoops (@ThrowbackHoops) September 28, 2019
And even the Miami players were very confused as to how they can deal with a player of Dirk’s caliber.
Dealing with Dirk was a tall task for the @MiamiHEAT during the 2006 #NBA Finals.
While you’re watching the #HEATRewind replay of Game 4 on FOX Sports Sun, James Posey recalls the shared approach he took with @ThisIsUD to defend @swish41. pic.twitter.com/rDAK10dTdi
— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) April 22, 2020
Call it fate, call it luck, the Mavericks would go on to lose in 6 games and Nowitzki would be sad.
.@swish41 and the young Mavericks had a 2-0 lead against the Heat in 2006. Then the wheels just came off.
Full conversation: https://t.co/PSw43MBfJn pic.twitter.com/g2JRMG8oWz
— The Ringer (@ringer) October 12, 2018
Dirk Nowitzki drank for 3 weeks after the loss.
Of course, like any sane man, he would go on to drink for three weeks after such a loss. We didn’t get to know of this till 2011 when he finally won and he revealed a lot about what went into winning.
He thanked fans for believing in him and how they thought he deserved it, he said, “how devastated I was after losing the Finals in ’06, so I had to go on a three-week drinking binge just to forget everything.”.
Dirk also confessed that he partied harder in the loss than in the win. He said, “I actually think we partied harder in ’06 when we lost just to forget about it than we did now”.
But all is good, Dirk went on to win and beat a much more stacked Miami team in the 2011 NBA Finals. He dropped a clinic and $100,o00 at a club on drinks.
Dirk Nowitzki shot 97.8% from the free-throw line in the 2011 NBA Finals 😳
Dirk missed only one free throw during the series against the Heat. He ended up sinking 45 of 46 from the stripe. pic.twitter.com/6ACGgH2gVq
— Real Talk 🏀 (@Real7Talk) July 23, 2022
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