Can Dirk Nowitzki take over Los Angeles Lakers’ Legendary Kobe Bryant? - NBA Special
Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant- two great names of NBA. Both have had an outstanding career record with Bryant usually taking the lead. Not this time, though.
In the recent playoff season, Nowitzki has emerged as a much better All-Star than before. He led his team, Dallas Mavericks, to a tremendous NBA Championship against the Miami Heat.
Nowitzki has finished this postseason averaging 27.7 points per game (ppg). This was around 5% more than the legend, Kobe Bryant – Bryant averaged 22.8%. This could be an explanation why Bryant was not able to take the Los Angeles
Lakers beyond second round this season.
With his 208 appearances in the playoffs, Bryant has always showed outstanding leadership skills, taking his team mostly to nothing less than the semi-finals or finals. This time Bryant was not able to present a similar show though;
him and his team were out in the second round. The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Dallas Mavericks four games in a row. Nowitzki, on the other hand, preceded his team to face the Oklahoma City Thunders and later, to win the Championship.
In his 993 career season games, Nowitzki has a 0.476 field-goal percentage (FG %). Bryant, on the other hand, has an FG% of 0.454 in 1,103 games. Nowitzki takes a definite lead here. Bryant has not stayed behind though and proved
himself, maintaining his ppg average at 25.3 in his career seasons. Nowitzki here has a 23.0 ppg average. This was, however, in no way a drawback for the Mavericks’ forward this season.
Nowitzki exceeded expectations of both those who follow basketball as a profession or those who follow it as a leisure activity. He is no doubt one of the most unique players in the history of the game. It would not be wrong to
count him amongst the top 20 players of all times. Some would even count him among the top 10. That is somewhat bearable though it would be a really big thing to say just yet. No doubt Nowitzki has been going big this season; not big enough to count him in
the top 10’s list.
No doubt, Nowitzki has the thing in him to reach even greater milestones. Just not enough to cross the Lakers’ Captain yet though,Yes. This word has also been in the news around town these days as well. This could be possible if
Bryant ended his career right now just like that and let Nowitzki takeover – Nowitzki currently trails the Lakers’ Captain in scoring career points by almost 3214 points. Considering Nowitzki as a better player than Bryan just because of one great playoff
season would be similar to considering Dwayne Casey as a better defence coach than Phil Jackson. Although both Casey and Nowitzki could take a lead to both their respective opponents, but that seems a vague possibility.
Some of Dirk Nowitzki’s stats do speak in favour of the All-Star. For one, Nowitzki appeared in 24 games in his first ever playoff season – more than Bryant’s first two seasons games total put together. Still, it has been Kobe
Bryant in the top 5 players of the era soon after his debut whereas Nowitzki has lingered near the top 30’s list. Michael Jordan’s singled handed wins for the Chicago Bulls were reflected in Bryant’s game. He was the one to have led the Lakers to 5 out of
their 16 NBA Championship titles.
Thus it would be hard to decide over naming Nowitzki as a better player than Kobe Bryant. Only if Nowitzki continues his play, the way he has started playing lately, can he get himself anywhere near Kobe Bryant – the second best,
next to LeBron James, player of the era.
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