Legendary baller Dirk Nowitzki has irrevocably changed the face of NBA for the super-super tall.
The former Dallas Mavericks power forward has recorded a phenomenal series of statistics, shattering the ceiling for players that are, with few exceptions, almost too tall to be athletically gifted.
Lets look at some of these stats and tell he has not changed basketball:
The German national team player is a 14 x All Star and 12 x All-NBA legend, and a look at his numbers show the evolution of the sport.
He made his NBA debut in 1998 and before that a grand total of 40 players 7 foot or higher had hit a three pointer, and the combined tally from all 40 added up to 507.
Then along came Dirk and shattered the backboards, making 1,982 3P in his career. That is four times more than all the previous giants combined.
Since his feats on the court 81 more 7 footers have made 7,253 three pointers.
Double the amount of seven footers but more than 14 times the total combined three pointers among them.
Can one player create this legacy, you bet it can.
Other stats back up a claim for him to be considered as one of the top five greats of all-time. Karl Malone is the only other power forward to score more points.
He has the 6th most points in the NBA, the seventh most rebounds and the 11th most three pointers. He was also considered a giant in field goals, in ninth place and free throws at sixth – talk about the complete package.
They say dynamite comes in small packages, in this case they come in size 15.5 sneakers.
