Dallas – One of Kiki Vandeweghe’s first duties in 1999 as the Dallas Mavericks’ player development coach was to work out two of their promising young big men, Chris Anstey and Dirk Nowitzki. Coach Don Nelson was concerned about Nowitzki, who had struggled as a rookie.
A few minutes into the workout, Vandeweghe was so captivated by the potential he was witnessing firsthand in Nowitzki that he all but forgot about Anstey. Now, seven years later, the 7-foot Nowitzki has blossomed into the stardom Nelson predicted from Day One, leading the Mavericks into their first NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, starting here tonight.
“You could see it in five minutes,” Vandeweghe, the former Nuggets player and general manager, said Wednesday. “You could see it when he shot and moved around. I came back and told Nellie and the guys he would be pretty good.”
Pretty good is an understatement.
The five-time all-star averaged a career-high 26.6 points in the regular season and was named all-NBA for the second year in a row. He has averaged 28.4 points in the playoffs and scored 50 points in a remarkable Game 5 performance in the Western Conference finals against Phoenix.
“He’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game,” Heat center Shaquille O’Neal said. “He’s earned his spot, year by year, he’s earned his spot.”
At age 20, Nowitzki was selected with the ninth pick in the 1998 draft by Milwaukee. The Bucks traded his draft rights and the draft rights to Pat Garrity to the Mavericks for the draft rights to Robert Traylor.
Nelson, who was fond of Nowitzki’s shooting range and skill, predicted he could become the next Larry Bird.
That pressure proved too much for Nowitzki, who averaged a respectable 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds as a rookie in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season.
“Nellie compared me my first year to Larry,” Nowitzki said. “That’s a lot of pressure to handle for a young guy. I never really got going. Everybody said it was the wrong draft pick. That’s a lot of things you had to deal with. My first year was the lockout year, too. Six games in eight or nine days. Six different cities. It was probably the toughest year of my life. Being away from my family so far away. Living by myself for the first time. And then performing on the highest level in the world.
“I was not comfortable off the floor. And if you’re not comfortable off the floor, there’s no way you’re going to perform on the floor.”
After working extensively in the offseason with Vandeweghe and spending extra hours in the gym honing his game, Nowitzki’s scoring average jumped to 17.5 points in his second season. Halfway through that season, Vandeweghe said he told Nelson that Nowitzki would end up being better than the Mavericks’ best player that year, guard Michael Finley.
“He’s nothing short of spectacular,” Vandeweghe said of Nowitzki’s game. “He gets better, better and better every time I see him play. He’s fun to watch.”
From his third season on, Nowitzki has never averaged fewer than 21 points. But it wasn’t until this season, with coach Avery Johnson pushing him, that Nowitzki took his game to new heights, and brought his team along with him. He added to his offensive game by taking the ball to the basket more and not settling for jump shots, resulting in career highs in scoring, field-goal percentage (.480) and 3-point shooting percentage (.406).
“He’s taken the coaching really good,” Johnson said. “We’ve had a good relationship. We’ve kind of simulated that game situation quite a bit in practice. To really see it come to pass in the game was pretty special.”
In recent years, NBA teams have been looking for the “next Nowitzki,” using high draft picks for foreign players they believed had the same talents. Memphis tried with Pau Gasol, who has developed into a front-line player. The Nuggets tried with Nikoloz Tskitishvili, one of the team’s biggest draft busts. Detroit tried with Darko Milicic, who rarely got off the bench before he was traded this past season. And next on the horizon is Italian draft prospect Andrea Bargnani, who is being talked about as a possible high pick this year.
Knowing how hard it was to become the first Nowitzki and the hype he faced, the Mavs’ star hopes no young player has to go through that.
“You can’t put so much pressure on these young guys,” Nowitzki said. “I’ve had a pretty good career in the league and now I’ve made it to the Finals.”
Staff writer Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-820-5449 or mspears@denverpost.com.
DIRK NOWITZKI | IN THE PLAYOFFS
50 points vs. Phoenix in Game 5 of Western finals…28.4 scoring average…11.9 rebounding average
3.1 assists per game….494 field-goal percentage….897 free-throw percentage
