Top 100 NBA Players: #17

Dirk Nowitzki

(Simmons: #37, BBR: #18)

Dirk Nowitzki made the leap from just outside the top 20 to solidly inside because of one magical season that just concluded. Without his breakthrough, when he was finally able to prove that he could win when it counted, he would not be ranked this high, but last season changed that.

Dirk has been a very consistent player throughout his time as a Maverick. For 11 straight seasons, he averaged at least 20 points per game. Contrast that with Kevin Garnett, with whom he has many similarities, and you'll notice that Garnett only recorded 9 consecutive seasons of 20 or more points. During that entire time, he missed fewer than 10 games in each and every season, which meant that they could count on those 20 points every night.

When Dirk first arrived in Dallas, the team still belonged to Michael Finley. After two seasons, the torch was passed to the big German, who led Dallas to its first playoff berth in over a decade, a feat that he has duplicated in every season since, with that streak currently at 11 straight seasons as well. Kevin Garnett, meanwhile, missed the playoffs in three straight seasons with Minnesota.

Dirk is also one of only 7 players in history to finish an entire season with a 50-40-90, meaning 50% or better from the field, 40% or better from long range, and 90% or better from the free throw line. It requires a very accurate and complete offensive player to accomplish that, and among the other names that grace the list are Larry Bird, Steve Nash, and Reggie Miller. Of all of them, Dirk had the second-highest scoring average in his special season, with only Bird topping him.

Nowitzki has never been known as a great rebounder, especially considering that he is 7 feet tall. He has never finished a season averaging over 10 rebounds per game, but in the playoffs, he has always turned it up a notch, grabbing at least 10 rebounds per game in 8 straight postseason campaigns. So not only did he get his team to the playoffs every year, he also stepped it up when he got there.

During his reign as the Mavericks' superstar, Dirk has led three deep playoff runs. In 2003, he took Dallas to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs. After a few seasons that ended in disappointment, he took them a step farther in 2006, getting them to the Finals, where they took a 2-0 lead and were minutes away from going up 3-0 before things fell apart and they lost to Miami. Then in 2011, he was able to take a team with no other star all the way back to the Finals to face the same Heat team, except that Miami had three superstars to Dallas' one, but Dirk trumped those three and took home the Finals MVP in the process, during his 13th season in the league.

Nowitzki and Pippen followed pretty similar paths for a while in their careers, until Dirk became a monster for a couple of years. Pippen hit the wall after 10 seasons, then became a solid role player for a few years before becoming a bench player. Dirk, however, has remained a superstar through 13 seasons, long after most players start to falter. Pippen obviously has the edge in championships, but Dirk was the leader of two Finals teams, which neither Pippen nor Garnett can claim, and he won a title with very little help, while Garnett had a lot of help and Pippen was the help.