Soon, perhaps as early as Friday night, a new NBA champion will emerge, triggering a celebration unlike any other in the league’s 74-season history. In a...
Nowitzki eventually returned to the court to accept his Finals Most Valuable Player award and hoist the Larry O’Brien championship trophy, but the specifics surrounding his several-minute disappearance have remained somewhat of a mystery, kind-of explained but not in detail.
Although Dallas comfortably led late in that title-clinching Game 6, Nowitzki only twice, briefly, flashed emotion in the final minutes. And then, when I played to qualify for the Olympics in ’08, when we finally made my dream come true and I felt all these tears coming on at the end, I didn’t make it off the court in time. So I’m on the court and I’m hugging my teammates and I’m completely bawling and I couldn’t stop myself.
Dirk Nowitzki abruptly leaves the court at the end of Game 6 of the NBA Finals at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on June 12, 2011.I usually sit right there by the bench, so when a team clinches it and I’ve gotten all the MVP votes and I tell our people who the MVP is, I just head to the court. I’m standing next to Jason Kidd. He’s doing his interview. And I can see Dirk go over the scorer’s table.
“The emotions of Dirk Nowitzki,” ABC’s Mike Breen told viewers. “What he’s always dreamed of, hoping to have another chance after the bitter loss in 2006. An unlikely playoff run, capped by Dallas upsetting LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the favored Miami Heat.” Nowitzki in fact had passed through the locker room and into a room that adjoins the shower area. It’s the room in which towels are stored and visiting assistant coaches dress and players pass through en route to the shower.Great question. I think I wanted to lay down and I’m not sure I wanted to lay down on the floor of the locker room. So I guess I remembered there was a bench in the shower area, but don’t ask me why. I’m not sure that was all rational.
One of our NBA Entertainment guys comes in and motions to me. Dirk can’t see him. So I go in the hallway and said, “Listen. I’ll get him. You’ve just got to give me some time.”I’m not even sure he was processing where he was. He was so overwhelmed. It was the most stressful moment at the time, but looking back now, I think it was the coolest moment I’ve ever had. Because it was so pure. It was a guy who had grown up in Germany, had worked his whole life for this.
Scott Tomlin, now the Mavericks vice president of basketball communications, walks back up the AmericanAirlines Arena tunnel to the court with Dirk Nowitzki after Dallas' Game 6 victory in the 2011 NBA Finals. Tomlin was instrumental in convincing Nowitzki to return to the court to participate in the trophy ceremony.
Nowitzki returned to the court and joined his teammates on stage. Later, a Mavericks-produced video emerged, from one camera that was trained on Nowitzki from the time he re-emerged through the trophy ceremony. On my priority list, ABC’s concerns were not my concerns. I’m sure they were worried about having the superstar not being on stage. Tim and I were worried about Dirk on a personal level, possibly missing this moment.
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