Dirk Nowitzki: NBA Title or Bust in Dallas


For Dirk and the Mavs, an NBA Championship is the only acceptable outcome from this season. The Star-Telegram reports: “Star forward Dirk Nowitzki, one of two players who remain on the team from the 2006 Finals club that lost to the Miami Heat, said the veteran-laden Mavericks are confident. He also said that Dallas is far from satisfied and the only acceptable outcome is to not only win this series but continue and win the club’s first NBA title. Anything short of that would be just as disappointing as the team’s first-round playoff exits in three of the past four seasons. ‘If we don’t win it all, this would be a wasted year,’ Nowitzki said. ‘If we lose the first round, second round, third round, at this point it doesn’t matter if you end the season on a loss. It’s disappointing and it means I didn’t reach my goal.’ Like the message on the T-shirts the Mavericks’ marketing team has been giving to fans during the playoffs, Nowitzki says the “time is now” for Dallas. ‘Why not now?’ Nowitzki said. ‘We have guys who have been through a lot. We are just trying to stay together and bring us back to the Finals. Our goal is to win a championship. That was our goal in October. That’s our goal now.’ Guard Jason Terry, the only other remaining player from the 2005-06 team that went up 2-0 in the Finals before allowing the Heat to battle back, is of a similar mind-set. He had a tattoo of the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, which is given to the title winner, put on his right arm before the season because he felt this was the year the Mavericks would win it all.”