Dirk Nowitzki is arguably the greatest European player ever. A common face amongst the Dallas Mavericks faithful, the German spent 21 years with the franchise. He was the sole reason for the team being playoff contenders year after year. During his time there, The Bavarian Bomber became one of the best players in the league as he cemented himself in NBA history. Having already become the main man for the Mavericks by his third season, the onus was on Dirk to deliver a championship. Although he did eventually bring a chip to the city, it wasn’t before a stumbling fall in the 2006 finals.

Losing to the Miami Heat in the Finals, many fans believed that Dirk and Dallas could win their first ring in 2007. What followed was a disappointing end to a wonderful campaign. Notably, it was also the year that Nowitzki won his only MVP award.

Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki almost did the unthinkable

With Dirk Nowitzki officially a part of the Hall of Fame class of 2023, the forward sat down with Rachel Nichols to delve into his career highlights. One topic of conversation was Dirk’s first-round defeat to the Golden State Warriors in 2007. Recounting the shocking encounter, Nichols questioned Dirk on his thoughts about that moment. She asked, “You lose to the Warriors, I assume what you want to do is just go back to Germany?”

Dirty went on to explain that he felt “embarrassed” about that loss. The 14x All-Star recalls thinking that he “let his team down” and wanted to go someplace nobody would recognize him.

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The 2006-07 season was also the year Dirk won his MVP trophy as he averaged 50% from the field. He also tallied nearly 25 points, 9 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

In a dramatic turn of events, the legend revealed how he almost declined the award as he was too disheartened with their first-round exit. Recalling the absurd story the Maverick icon told Nichols, “I remember saying ‘I’ll just give it to somebody else. Not this year I was so, still so hurt. I was still so embarrassed about it.”

Nowitzki’s 16-year-old humiliation

Dirk did eventually win the MVP award. In fact, he received it 2 weeks after his disappointing loss.  One can’t help but wonder what was so humiliating about the defeat that he almost gave up his MVP trophy.

Well, having gone all the way to the finals a year prior everyone expected the Dallas Mavericks to make it back to the NBA finals. This was the case for the entirety of the regular season as they clinched the 1st seed with Dirk having the best season of his career so far.

All of this came crashing down in the first round of the playoffs as an eight-seeded Warriors dismantled the Mavs in six games. Up until that point, this was only the third time in NBA history that a bottom seed had toppled a top seed and the disappointment was too hard for the German to handle.

Although he did get his MVP trophy do you think Dirk could have won more titles had he given up the award?  Or perhaps, could it have led to a Kobe-Dirk Maverick’s team? Let us know in the comments below.