Newly minted Hall-of-Famer and Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki is one of the best basketball players of all-time. Nowitzki is almost solely responsible for putting the Mavs on the map, and he kept them there as contenders for the better part of 21 seasons, which included an MVP award in 2007 and an NBA championship in 2011.
But, that 2007 MVP has a bit of an asterisk next to it for Nowitzki. Though the honor is one very few players receive, the timing that year wasn't ideal, as the Mavericks were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the "We Believe" Golden State Warriors. On a recent episode of "Headliners" on Showtime, Nowitzki spoke about how he felt receiving the award.
"I was embarrassed. I let the city and my team down," Nowitzki said. "All I wanted to do was go somewhere where nobody knew me and go on vacation or something."
The need for vacation was strong for Nowitzki and the Mavs, who had just finished up clinching the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with a league-best and franchise-best 67-15 regular season record before losing No. 8 seed Warriors. Before Nowitzki could disappear on a beach somewhere with a beer in hand, he had to face the music.
"Sure enough, I got the call from the NBA. 'Hey, you cannot leave yet. There's a chance you might get the MVP,'" Nowitzki said. "And I remember saying 'just give it to someone else.'"
Nowitzki certainly didn't mean he didn't want to win the MVP award, but the pain from losing in the first round of the playoffs to a team he should've beaten was a tough pill to swallow. "Not this year," Nowitzki said. "I was still so hurt. I was still so embarrassed about it."
Instead of being awarded the MVP trophy in front of the Mavs' fanbase at a home playoff game in the second round, it ended up being an awkward ceremony following the lowest point of Nowitzki's career.
"It was some of the most uncomfortable moments of my career," Nowitzki said. "All I wanted to do really was be gone, and I took it like a man and talked about it and addressed it right away [about] how disappointed I still was. ... And of course now, looking back at the MVP trophy, it's amazing. It was a great season with a great team."
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