DALLAS — In 2021, Karl-Anthony Towns made a claim that caught Dallas Mavericks fans' attention. Towns said that he is the “greatest big man shooter of all-time,” which immediately caused Mavs fans to mention Dirk Nowitzki's name.
“Honestly man, I ain’t gotta play like nobody. I’m me,” Towns said in December of 2021, via Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “I’m the greatest big man shooter of all time. That’s a fact. You can see the stats. I ain’t got to play like no one else. Everyone trying to find themselves to be the second version of me when I’m the first version. I don’t got to be the second version of someone else. I’m already an original. I don’t have to be a duplicate of someone else.”
On Tuesday, Jason Kidd was asked about the claim as the Mavericks prepare to play against Towns' Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals.
“Everyone has a right to their opinion, especially now,” the Mavs head coach said after Tuesday's practice. “But yeah, he can shoot it. He can definitely shoot it. You look at KAT (Towns), KAT is a very confident young man. He's one of the best bigs in this league. He can shoot the three at a high rate. He can put it on the floor, he can score. So I think he can be one of the top big men (shooters). Dirk was one of the first to start that so I think Dirk wold definitely have something to say.
“But I think Dirk opened the door for a lot of the bigs to become shooters.”
Dirk Nowitzki still impacting Mavericks
Towns has shot 39.8 percent from beyond the arc for his career. Dirk, meanwhile, shot 38 percent from deep.
As Kidd noted, Dirk was one of the first big men to consistently take long-range shots. Before Nowitzki, many bigs stayed in the paint and finished near the basket.
In the end, both Nowitzki and Towns will be remembered as two of the greatest shooting big men to ever play in the NBA.
Kidd had more to say about Nowitzki on Tuesday. Dirk still attends Mavericks games on a fairly consistent basis. I asked the Mavericks head coach what the impact is on the team of having a Mavs legend like Nowitzki come and support them.
“It's great. You're talking about the best player to ever put on a Mavs jersey,” Kidd said. “We get to drive by that statue (the Dirk Nowitzki statue outside of the American Airlines Center) every home game. So it's great that he's in town to be able to come to the games and hangout.”
The Mavericks are currently looking to win the franchise's first title since Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas to the feat in 2011. Of course, Jason Kidd also played on that 2011 championship team. Kidd now has a chance to win a championship with the Mavericks as both a player and a coach, something that would be an impressive accomplishment to say the least.
Dallas still has eight more victories to go, however. The Mavericks will begin the Western Conference Finals against the Timberwolves in Minnesota on Wednesday night.
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