From 1998 to 2017, the San Antonio Spurs sat on their perch atop the Western Conference, serving as the gatekeeper that stood in the way of any other contending team's aspirations of winning a championship. One of the teams that know the pain of having to overcome the Spurs almost year after year in the postseason is Dirk Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks, a team that came up short against the other Western Conference powerhouse residing in Texas in 2001 and 2003.

Given how heated those battles were, it's not a surprise to see Nowitzki feel some sort of way towards the Spurs — especially towards the early 2000s when it seemed like the Mavs were always going to be in the shadow of their in-state “big brothers”.

“I’m not gonna lie, I used to hate the Spurs,” Nowitzki said, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

To be fair to the Mavs, the Spurs were almost every Western Conference team's big brother in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Only the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal Los Angeles Lakers seemed to have the Spurs' number, as it was this famous partnership that knocked them off in 2001, 2002, and 2004.

It took the Mavs quite a few years before they managed to get over the Spurs hump, and it wasn't easy at all. In fact, it took Dirk Nowitzki and company until 2006 to eliminate their Texas rival, with the Mavs legend doing whatever he could in Game 7 to finally clear the path for his team to win a championship.

During that fateful Game 7, Nowitzki dropped 38 points, including the iconic and-one against Manu Ginobili that ended up sending the game to overtime. That seemed like a watershed moment in franchise history, as the Mavs finally conquered their demons on their way to a favorable matchup in the Western Conference Finals.

However, the Mavs fell short in the NBA Finals, and they wouldn't get retribution for this crushing loss until 2011. But still — the Mavs and Spurs certainly have no love lost for each other, that much is clear. And for Nowitzki, who's approaching the fifth year of his retirement, he certainly won't forget the heated battles he had with the team he used to hate anytime soon.