Some Dirk Appreciation

[Redz]

Just came across this stat based review while working on season ending awards for roto league.  Dirk's had an amazing career.  When get down the depth of that 1998 draft it really is one of the all time great classes.  Dirk has stood the test of time amazingly.

by Joe Politpo CBS Sports

I didn't think Nowitzki would play in more than 65 games much less all 82 of them. And it's not like he was only playing in spurts. Nowitzki logged 30-plus minutes in 66 of those games. He only scored in single digits twice this season and finished 19th overall in average weekly scoring (111.1 Fantasy points per week). Had also had a string of eight-straight 100-plus Fantasy point. He finished 12th in points per game at 21.7 while making 50 percent of his field goals and 90 percent of his free throws. There's no one older than 30 among the top 25 scorers in the league other than him, and Nowitzki will be 36 in June.
To give you an idea how hard this is at his age, only 18 times in the history of the league has a player 35-years or older scored more than 20 points per game. So Nowitzki joins the likes of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan. Wow.

[mgent]

I've been thinking of making a Dirk Appreciation thread all year, but that guy wrote a pretty lousy paragraph.

There's only FOUR players other than Dirk who have scored that much at his age, and he's the only one ever once you add in his assist/rebounds per game (or you can forget those and go with TOs where he destroyed those other guys).  He's also got one of the biggest ball hogs/volume chuckers in the league with Monta Ellis.

This Joe Politpo also left out the most important part.  Dirk did this while shooting 50-40-90 all year.  At 35!!!!!!!! 

UNBELIEVABLY GREAT to see Dirk rebound from what was basically his only injury in a 16 year career.  He's back to his super-reliable self and playing in a historic manner.

There's a good chance Dirk might end up one of most under-appreciated players of all time.