Dime 1-on-1 NBA Tournament, NBA / Jul 15, 2011 / 12:00 pm

Dime’s 1-On-1 NBA Champion: Dirk Nowitzki

By

Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki (photo. Monte Isom)

Conversation is the focal point of sports. We endlessly strive for absolutes when none exist. We make lists and rankings. We compare. And ultimately we arrive at arbitrary, widely accepted conclusions that inform the conventional conscience. We saw that manifest itself in Dime’s 1-on-1 Tournament. When Dirk dealt those deathblows to Kobe and ‘Melo, many of you scoffed. Angrily. When D-Wade decimated LeBron and any semblance of self-respect he had in the reserve tanks, you shook your head. Dissapointedly. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t surprised by these upsets too. But some knightly defenders of Dirk and Wade’s honor marched to the front of the battle line and fired their muskets right back.

Intelligent, well-thought out debate ensued (well, for the most part) in the comments section. I may write on this site, but I’m a commentor as well. I peruse more blogs and websites than I can count. When you put them all together, you get some mass cross-section of my tangential interests; other sports, of course, but some of the less worthy matters, too – movies, politics, history. That’s what this one-on-one tournament was. You had to set aside your five-on-five analytical mind and inherent bias.

Or maybe not. Maybe the magnetic emotional attraction that binds us to basketball led the way. Then again, who’s to say that one way ruled? Most of you probably went with an indefinable combination of the two. Or maybe I’m just talking out of my a**. Who knows. Regardless of your methods, your comments and votes presented your unique take. Often they clashed and battled with their 180-degree adversaries, but it made for great conversation and I’m glad that it happened. So thank you, kind Dime folks.

Anyway, let’s get this over with. But first the narrative of how your votes shaped the game.

D-Wade leapt out to an early lead with a layup, strip and pull-up jumper. The force was strong in this one. But I don’t need to remind you of Dirk’s resolve; he came back immediately by hitting an array of “you’ll never block this” fadeaways and “you had no idea I could take it to the rack” dunks. 4-2 was the score and it looked like these finals would have an anti-climactic finish. But the Dwyane Wade fans were having none of that. They stormed back, clicking their mouses and voting D-Wade back into the lead, barely. At 5-4, Dirk nailed two straight elbow jumpers to make it 6-5. From there, the basket trading began. Neither could stop the other’s bread and butter: Dwyane Wade with his “I refuse to finish with my left hand” Euro-stepping layups and Dirk with his patented rainbow fadeaway.

At 9-8 (Dirk leading), Dime commentor JAY’s precisely scientific sketch of Wade’s baby oil-lathered body slid past Dirk once again, but he blew the layup. That’s all that Dirk needed to pounce. Another jumper made it 10-8, and the NBA’s classic “I’m struggling for offense and slightly panicking so I’ll throw up an ill-advised, contested three” infected Wade’s mind. After gathering the rebound and clearing the ball, Dirk didn’t get fancy. Posting up Wade to protect the rock, he turned, rose (I guess “rose” is inappropriate when his vertical barely exceeds six inches) and fired. The swish sealed an 11-8 victory and another Dirk championship.

1-on-1 NBA Tournament Bracket

updated bracket w/ included equivalent scores (based on voting %)

So congratulations again, Mr. Nowitzki. You have conquered the game’s best in basketball’s most brutally honest genre.
-DYLAN MURPHY

THE RULES

What do you think?

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  • Rainman

    @ First and Foremost: “Dirk is a good player but he has never shown a mean streak to do the little things to get by in a 1 on 1 game”

    what MORE does the guy have to do?? ppl used to say that about him in a 5 on 5 game, for 48 minutes, he proved em all wrong, he does have that ability when it comes down to it, and 1 on 1 is what all that stuff comes down to, in my books, its a well deserved win.

  • Speak Up

    So he wins a NBA Championship and now all of a sudden he’s untouchable? All of a sudden Carmelo wouldn’t light him up? All of a sudden Kobe wouldn’t give him buckets? All of a sudden, D-Wade won’t bury him? I like Dirk but let’s be real here.

  • ash

    speakup, no one is saying any of those guys cant give dirk buckes.

    dirk wins because all those guys give up 6 inches to dirk. dirk’s post up fadeaway is the most un blockable shot in the nba since the sky hook. oh and by the way, dirk is a better shooter than all those guys.

    dirk has more heart than carmelo, both cant play d, dirk is a better shooter dirk wins.

    against wade, wade is giving up 8 inches. cmon man, this is the nba and wade is playing against the best in the world, wade has no shot due to the height.

    kobe is gettin old, cant d dirk on the post.

    again, all these guys would give dirk buckets, but dirk’s height, shot and the fadeaway comes through.

  • M Intellect

    @JAY – DIRK 1st stepping D-Wade?! GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE. D-Wade giving Dirk an uncontested 3? GET THE ENTIRE FUCK OUTTA HERE.

    If you are MUCH quicker then someone, why would you need to back off them? That right there, despite your smart previous posts, shows me you’re an armchair baller. Anyone who plays ball knows that.

    The reality of the situation is when Dirk checks the ball outside the 3, his options are this: 1. Shoot a contested 3 or 2. Back D-Wade down. From 24 Ft.

    He simply cannot beat D-Wade off the dribble.

    To be honest, Dirk wouldn’t have even got past Carmelo because he wouldn’t be able to 1st step or get THAT clear a look against him and ‘Melo would be BLOW past him and even if Dirk was with him, he’d finish over him. People talk about ‘Melo’s D but remember it’s easier to hide on D in a 5-on-5 then it is a 1-on-1.

    Dirk is a great player but his game is not suited for 1-on-1 play. FACT.

  • First & Foremost

    If you were 7 feet tall, chance are you can’t keep up with many players. Just about everyone Dirk faced can play above the rim with ease. Dirk has never been the type of defender that has timing to pin or smack shots off the backboard. In these games, if Dirk misses he now falls behind because he can’t stop anyone.

    All of Melo’s shots would have been from 5 feet and in. Wade checks the ball and before Dirk even has a chance to talk trash, Wade is at the rim. In order to have a proper handcheck you need to be able to slide your feet and still stay step for step. Dirk can’t even stay step for step with Glen Davis but we expect him to kep Manu-Melo-Kobe-Wade out of the paint. If you guys say so.

  • G14CLASSIFIED

    @ control
    Playing against little kids doesn’t count.. Come down to
    willo courts and then talk… I can guarantee you’ll be picking up your laundry when i’m thru with you. Can you say a-n-k-l-e-b-r-e-a-k-e-r???

    @F & F
    I’m sorry but you cannot just keep fouling the other player, regardless if its a 1 on 1. I’m certain you have never practiced what you’ve preached, coz if you do, it’ll either start a fight, or people just wont want to play with you. There is an unwritten code among true ballers on how to behave on the courts, even in streetball.

  • Ty

    Melo just watched this and LMAO’d hard.

    Most guys here are saying Dirk’s unstoppable on O. I’m saying Melo’s goddamn awesome on O and good enough on D to bother Dirk. Sadly, I can’t say the same about Dirk…..

    My ideal pick would’ve been Melo vs D12…..

  • Kyle

    I guess none of you were known as great shooters in highschool or college. You know that you can beat almost anyone one on one. They rarely want to guard you from deep… and after you hit a bunch of jumpers in a row, they’ll jump at the lamest pump fake, and you’re able to get an easy layup. The only guy who could actually put enough pressure on Dirk offensively is Melo. He has a sweet 18 foot jumper, he can catch fire, and also will use his strength to get inside for a layup. If he misses it, he has a sneaky explosive second jump that beats almost every NBA player it seems. A guy who could beat any of these guys if he got the ball first is Steve Nash… he easily gets into the lane drawing a double team so someone gets a dunk or layup, but instead he’d kill anyone with his hard drive, then turnaround fade away 10-12 foot jumper. All time, Bird and Jordan would be the toughest guys to beat.

    @Ty Melo would be a great matchup, but he doesn’t have a shot that can’t be blocked and his shot isn’t always perfect. But if he caught fire, he’d beat everyone in this. I’d still love to see Nash, just cause he’d drive around always keeping his dribble alive, and there’s no shot clock so he’d find ways to get off balance reverse layups, horse shot style fade aways after driving hard, pump faking and doing up and unders or wild left handed hooks that he did a few times last year. Chris Paul would also be fun to watch against a bigger guy.

    But D12 couldn’t beat any of these guys… he has absolutely not game from more than 10 feet from the basket, and he’d travel, commit offensive fouls, have the ball stripped by any smaller guys. You also don’t have to respect his shot at all… of course another fun guy to watch would be the Custodian. He’d just foul the sh!t out the guy every time.

  • http://dimemag.com/2011/07/dimes-1-on-1-nba-champion-dirk-nowitzki/ Jordan

    At first; when this one on one tourney started; I thought this would be very interesting and fun and I thought the only people who could win was Kobe and Kevin Durant. But DIRK….? C’mon now; I know u had to show respect to the NBA champion but Dirk maybe would have beaten ‘Melo in a very close game; but in real life Dirk stands NO chance against the next competitor Kobe Bean Bryant! Kobe will just use his skills and his unlimited perimeter moves to beat Dirk off the dribble at will. OK; so basically the worst defender outta all the competitors on here wins it all? This 1 on 1 competition started out good and ended VERY BAD! Also everyone would have wanted to argue about a Kobe vs Wade showdown; so Kobe should have advanced (Kobe vs Wade is much more interesting than Dirk vs Wade). Wade aint even a great 1 on 1 player.

    Here is my bracket(starting from 2nd round)
    James vs Pierce: winner= Lebron. SCORE LBJ-11… Pierce-9
    (Pierce would not be able to stay in front of Lebron)

    Wade vs Durant: winner: Wade (I originally had KD but the more I think about KD’s not so great defense and Wade’s quick crossovers and speed I think Wade wins in a close game.
    SCORE: WADE-12 KD-10

    Dirk vs Carmelo: Dirk wins. Melo is a bad defender on average 18-20ppg players players like Pierce (who lit Melo up in the playoffs) So there is NO way Melo can guard Dirk! Dirk has problems defending quick players from perimeter but Melo does lots of his damage in the mid post area.
    SCORE: Dirk-11 Melo-8

    Kobe vs Rose (Kobe and Rose are my top 2 favorite players; but this is by far the easiest winner on here.)
    SCORE: Kobe-11…Rose-2
    (*Kobe is still a great defender and he will be able to guard Rose mre than Rose can guard him. Kobe will be able to keep Rose in front of him; but there is no way Rose can guard Kobe AT ALL in the post or stop him from going baseline.)(Kobe and Wade are the hardest players to stop going baseline)

    Lebron vs Wade: (Lebron and Wade; 2 very similar players in their own ways. Wade is a better dribbler than LBJ, but even though Lebron is limited in the post; he is so strong and about 5 inches taller than Wade he will be able to take advantage of Wade. They are both about the same speed so that’s not really a factor)
    Winner:Lebron
    Score:Lebron-12…Wade-10

    CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
    KOBE VS LEBRON: (This is the matchup everyone wants to see. And NO I did not purposely make these 2 advance becuz they are the most popular players in the NBA; But becuz they had more advantages than their previous opponent. OK LBJ is stronger than Kobe; but that is bout it. Kobe is still a crazy goos 1 on 1 defender so LBJ wont be blowing by Kobe easy like some casual fans would think. Kobe has WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more of an arsenal of moves than Lebron; and Kobe is the only wing player that can post Lebron up and be successful doing so. So Kobe can pull up for jumpers on LBJ, he can post him, he can attack from triple threat. Lebron is bigger than Kobe by about 60 pounds but lacks an array of post moves so Kobe should not have too much trouble guarding LBJ in the post. The only LBJ would beat Kobe is if his jumper is falling on that particualar day. Other than that he cant blw by Kobe easily, he cant post Kobe.) Winner=Kobe
    SCORE: Kobe-11… Lebron-9

    *My bracket is much more likely; becuz in real life there is NO way Dirk wins it all in 1 on 1 against players like Kobe, Durant, Wade and Lebron. Dirk’s defense is just too bad to stay in front of any of those guys.

  • Celts Fan

    @jordan- I agree w/ a lot of your points, but “Kobe can post LeBron up”??? come on bro. your homerism is showing.

  • http://deleted dagwaller

    This was a competition based on reader votes. There’s going to be a bias. In years past, no way Dirk wins this. He just won a chip, so it must be for that reason that he won this tourney.

    OR he’s at the top of his game now and people finally are recognizing that he’s a dominant player.

    You could make an argument for ANY of the players on this list, and someone might agree with you. Simply put, Dirk has a unique set of skills that could allow him to win this thing.

    Saying that there’s “no way” that he would win is narrowminded. Dirk’s too slow to stay in front of these guys? It’s not like he’s in the NBA because they like the way he smells. He couldn’t get a first step on them? Even though he does that from time to time? At 7 feet, you don’t think he’d bother a shot or two? Who exactly can bother his shot, which goes in over 50% of the time anyway?

    If you really think you have the answers for those questions (and more), then you probably need to take your Kobe-in-2005/2006-style blinders off.

    Think about the things that bug you in 1v1. If the guy has size or can shoot, you’re in for a tough game. If he has both…what’s your game plan? Invoke your shoe contract that says “Nike/adidas/Reebok/Li-Ning/whoever says that I’m the shit and can blow by anyone at will (even though my shooting % is worse than Dirk’s), so everyone should vote for me,”?

  • leech

    Didn’t Steve Nash and Dirk play one-on-one regularly when they were on the Mavs, with Nash winning regularly? Doesn’t seem like Dirk’s length affects his smaller, quicker, crafy opponent as much as others on this forum seem to think. Has Dirk improved so much in the past 8 years?

  • Nike Summer

    @Jordan
    You’re obviously a Kobe fan. First of all, if Dirk can beat Melo, he can surely beat Kobe. And second, there is no way in hell that Kobe can drive against Lebron all the time when he can’t pull up some jump shots. And vice-versa, he can’t pull up jump shots all the time when he can’t attack the basket. As for LeBron, he can blow by anyone in the league and attack the basket anytime he wants especially against weaker opponents.

  • mike

    Ya’ll got caught up in Dirks 15minutes of fame, he could probably beat a few guys on this list but kobe & dwade? IF dirk missed a shot he wouldn’t get the ball back against either of them.

  • Cary

    Don’t forget shooting guards like Mitch Richmond, Ron Harper, John Starks and Clyde Drexler that Jordan had to go up against. Jordan played out of position that he faced point guards like Kevin Johnson, Allen Iverson, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas. He matched up against small forwards like Dominique Wilkins. One of Jordan’s favorite things to do was to challenge 7-footers, ask Patrick Ewing. I’ve never seen a guard dunk over so many 7-footers.

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