The Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Celtics will get the NBA Finals going on Thursday night in Boston. However, before we talk about that series, let's discuss a couple past greats from both of these teams. Dirk Nowitzki played for the Mavericks for his entire career. He was in Dallas from 1998 until 2019. Kevin Garnett played for multiples teams throughout his career, and one of them was the Celtics. He was in Boston from 2007 until 2013.
Dirk Nowitzki recently appeared on Shaquille O'Neal's podcast, The Big Podcast with Shaq, and he talked about when he and Kevin Garnett used to go up against each other. A lot of times, Garnett would make sure that he didn't let Nowitzki out of his sight.
“There was guys that would go at me all the time,” Nowitzki said. “I mean KG (Kevin Garnett) was one of them, he was wild. I mean I would sometimes get out of the huddle, he would already pick me up out of the huddle and follow me nose to nose everywhere I went, and he was hard on me. Early on he tried to go at me all the time. We even had battles later in our careers when we played against each other for a decade plus and we still had that intensity.”
Nowitzki and Garnett had some great matchups. Nowitzki went on to share the story of how he first earned Garnett's respect, and it was because of Nowitzki making his first All-Star game.
“I think it’s when I made my first All-Star Game and that was I think my third or fourth year,” Nowitzki added. “Now back in the West, my first All-Star, Shaq’s in there, Kobe’s in there, KG, Tim Duncan. I’m like literally walking around like this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. So me and Steve Nash, obviously who played with me, we got to be first time All-Stars together and so to go through that with one of my best friends, I’ll never forget my first All-Star. And then I think KG respected me a little more after that, we had some good discussions. Around the All-Star Game he’s completely different, he’s fun, he talked in the locker room he’s joking the whole time.”
Celtics and Mavericks will battle it out in the finals
Now, Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett are no longer battling things out in the NBA, but their two teams are meeting up in the NBA Finals. The Celtics were the best team in the NBA all season long and it would have been a major disappointment if they didn't make it this far. The Mavericks, on the other hand, are the five seed in the West. They had to take down the top seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, and then they won as underdogs in five games against the three seeded Minnesota Timberwolves. They are clearly playing just as well as the Celtics right now.
After the Mavericks quickly won in five and the Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers, we have had a long break of no NBA games. That ends Thursday night. Game one of the NBA Finals from Boston will get going at 8:30 ET and it will be airing on ABC. The Celtics are favored by 6.5 points.
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