Dirk Nowitzki would have passed up on his lone Most Valuable Player award in 2007 after suffering an embarrassing loss to the “We Believe” Golden State Warriors as the Dallas Mavericks became the first top seed to lose to an eighth seed in a best-of-seven playoff series.
The Hall of Fame-bound forward explained his feelings amid his playoff exit, knowing the embarrassment that would be etched in his carer, finding it disingenuous to accept an award of that kind after suffering such a loss:
“I wanted to leave. I wanted to get out. But the league wouldn’t say anything. I only found out maybe three days before the press conference. They wouldn’t tell me earlier. Everything was so fresh. I felt embarrassed, I think, more than anything,” Nowitzki told Zac Crain of D Magazine. “We won [almost] 70 games, and all of a sudden, we’re a first-round exit. First couple of days, I just thought: Don’t give it to me.”
Mavericks former director of business development and longtime friend Brian Dameris recalls the moment Nowitzki found out about the award:
“I was at his old house and we were kind of just lying around, hungover after one of our bender nights trying to get through the sorrow of what had happened, and he was looking at his phone and he got a text and he just kind of, while staring at the ceiling, he said, “I got it.” And I’m like, “What? You got what?” And he says, “I got the MVP.” And he had gotten a text from someone at the league telling him he’d won, and back then you got the award before the second round in front of the fans and that wasn’t going to happen. He was going to have it in a small room in the AAC in front of the media, and I jumped up and I was like, Oh my gosh! as I kind of finally realized what was happening. I was trying to get him excited and he was just sheepish about it.”
Nowitzki couldn't find a hole big enough to bury himself under at that point. The Warriors had become the NBA's cinderella story, while his Mavs — the favorite to win it all that season — were going home after six games.
Receiving an award of such prestige after one of the most iconic first-round defeats had to feel awkward at the very least. In Dirk's case, it might have been downright miserable, though he has come to appreciate the award in recent years.
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