Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki is one of the nicest human beings you’ll ever meet. During his playing days, Nowitzki was always a fierce competitor, but he still found a way to be nice and respectful toward most guys he played against. According to one former NBA player, that aspect of Nowitzki’s game used to make him mad due to the conflicting mind games it created.
On a recent episode of the Roadtrippin podcast, Channing Frye was asked this question by a fan: In your 14-year career as a player,
who pissed you off the most on the court, and what did he do to piss you off? Frye’s answer probably wasn’t what the fan was expecting.
“Probably Dirk,” Frye said. “Because he’s so damn nice. … I watched a lot of Dirk. I loved his game. He was just unguardable. I mean, it was literally like, ‘What am I gonna do?’ He’s an inch taller than me and shoots the way he does. He was smart. He’s a big dude, strong. I mean, it was just like, ‘God, I’m so tired of having to guard this guy.’ And I was like, ‘What are you gonna do?’ And then he’d be the nicest guy, and I’d be like, ‘Shut up, Dirk… I hate that you’re nice and I like you. You’re a good dude… and you just gave me 40.”
Nowitzki may not have been mean to anybody verbally or physically most of the time, but he was certainly mean to a lot of people in the form of bucket-getting. One glaring example that sticks out to me is after Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals, when Nowitzki, despite battling a 102-degree fever, pushed through and helped the Mavs tie the series at 2-2. Afterward, Miami Heat stars Dwyane Wade and LeBron James were seen mocking Nowitzki’s sickness with fake coughing in the American Airlines Center hallways.
Nowitzki never showed any visible anger from that incident; He simply stayed the course, continued to torch Miami, and got the last laugh by winning the championship in six games on the Heat’s home court. I’m sure that pissed D-Wade and LeBron off too.
