'Cough!' When Mavs Knew Dirk Would Top LeBron In NBA Finals
DALLAS - "Cough. Cough.''
It was just so wildly disrespectful. As Dirk Nowitzki would point out soon after being mocked by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade for, it seemed, faking an illness, Nowitzki had never, would never, do any such thing.
Character was exposed in that moment. And in that series. James' and Wade's were flawed. Dirk's was, and is, close to impeccable.
“When Dirk got sick,'' says Caron Butler, injured that year but nevertheless a member of the 2011 Dallas Mavericks team that upset the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, "I’ll never forget him being mocked by ... Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. And we saw the video of them coughing and making fun of the whole situation.
“When (Dirk) had got wind of people not thinking he’s not built for the moment, he was just dialed in to a whole other level.''
Some have labeled what the Miami stars did "a perceived slight.'' Wade, idiotically, even pretended he was talking and giggling about his own cough.
That's all horribly inaccurate. They were mocking a player in a way that made Dirk seem weak, lacking leadership, not on their level ... lacking character.
"I thought it was childish and ignorant,'' Dirk said calmly.
LeBron and Wade didn't "create a monster,'' though. Dirk was already that. He was during that period (in which he won the series MVP one year ahead of winning the league MVP) as unstoppable a force as anybody in the league, at LeBron's level and frankly a tier above Wade's.
And then came Game 5. Dirk put up 29 points, six rebounds and three assists in 40 minutes, shooting 9-of-18 from the field and turned the series Dallas' way.
As Caron said on FOX Sports Southwest:
“I knew we was going to have a parade in Dallas. That moment right there when that (cough-cough) happened, and I seen his focus … he took it there. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a wrap. Y’all just won us a championship!'”
