It would behoove everyone in the Dallas Mavericks organization to get on the same page regarding Dirk Nowitzki's absence. The player insists his one-week sabbatical from games had everything to do with a balky knee.
Coach Rick Carlisle said it was more about giving Nowitzki time to catch up on some conditioning work. And owner Mark Cuban said Dirk's absence had absolutely nothing to do with a knee injury.
Details are still murky on how one of the world's most celebrated German gym rats said he became sick of basketball and basically blew off his training before the lockout ended. It was a remarkably candid explanation from Nowitzki last week, but now he seems irked at the idea that his in-season "training camp" is being blamed on a lack of conditioning.
"No, I don't know why Coach threw that out there," Nowitzki told reporters Thursday. "I didn't have any problem with conditioning at all. You can never work hard enough on conditioning, but that wasn't holding me back."
Of course, a lot of this will go away if Nowitzki returns with a vengeance, possibly Sunday evening against the San Antonio Spurs. The sight of him clanging shots off the rim and averaging only 17.5 points per game have some of Nowitzki's most ardent defenders openly talking about a possible decline. You even have some of the numbers wonks pointing to the fact that Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan saw a steep decline once they surpassed 40,000 minutes on the floor.
Call me naïve, but it's hard to imagine Nowitzki hitting a career wall only six months after being named MVP of the NBA Finals and cementing his status as the greatest European player of all time. Maybe Nowitzki allowed himself a little too much relaxation time, but you know he still has the full arsenal. Nowitzki hasn't taken as much punishment as Duncan and Garnett over the years. He's improved as a defender during his career, but it's not like he exhausted as much energy as those two players on that side of the court.
I believe the lockout lured a lot of NBA players into a false sense of security. Nowitzki is one of the most regimented players in the league when it comes to his preparation, so maybe all the unknowns took their toll on him. For the first time that I can recall, Nowitzki has admitted that he's been motivated by some of the doubters.
He's read and heard about his alleged decline and says there's now a "fire" in his belly to prove those folks wrong. And after what happened last summer, it's probably not wise to doubt him. On Friday, Cuban tried to bring a little clarity to the situation while appearing on the "Ben & Skin" radio show on KESN-FM.
"His knee hurts because he didn't have the time to prepare," the Mavs owner said. "When you don't have the time to prepare, you're not conditioned to play the way you're accustomed to.
"So it's not like he was a fat slob. It's like anything else. The older you get, the more prepared you have [to be], particularly when you're Dirk, when you have a very definitive process you go through every summer. When you can't do that, you're not going to be in position to play your best basketball."
Unfortunately for the Mavs, Nowitzki's early season swoon has made it impossible for him to take a hard line with one of his new teammates. In the aftermath of losing key players such as Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea to free agency, the trade for NBA Sixth Man of the Year Lamar Odom was viewed as a coup for general manager Donnie Nelson.
A transition phase had to be expected, but Odom's struggles have gone far beyond that. If Nowitzki was playing at his normal elite level, maybe he'd feel more comfortable delivering a strong message to the former Lakers star.
Charles Barkley said recently that Jason Kidd might be in the best position to break through with Odom, but the Mavs point guard is focused on breaking out of a horrible shooting slump at the moment. Nowitzki did have some encouraging words for his newest teammate Thursday.
"He's close, he's close," Nowitzki said of Odom. "He's working, he's working. He's trying to drive, he's trying to mix his game in, he just doesn't have that lift yet going to the basket. But he's just got to keep on working like everybody else, and I think ultimately he's still going to be a great fit for this team."
That said, Nowitzki is still the only hope the Mavs have of doing anything in the playoffs. And hopefully he'll look a lot more like himself starting on Sunday.
