The friendly German big man was one of the most mild-mannered superstars to ever play in the NBA. However, in an interview with Chris Goodwell of Yahoo! Sports, Nowitzki shared a story about LeBron James and Dwyane Wade 'disrespecting' him during the 2011 NBA Finals.
During that season, the finals featured an underdog Mavericks team taking on a juggernaut Miami Heat squad, who was in the first year of the 'big 3' era which featured James, Chris Bosh and Wade.
Before Nowitzki would shock the world and best the Heat to win his first title, he was dealing with an illness during Game 5. According to Nowitzki,he didn't take too kindly to James and Wade mocking him by fake coughing in front of the cameras.
"We saw it after Game 5, but I didn’t see it. Honestly, I felt it was a little disrespectful,” Nowitzki said. “[But] it didn’t add to my motivation if that makes sense. I’m one game away from achieving my dreams, one I’ve chased 12 years into the league.”
In case your wondering, here is the video of the incident.
Wade responded to the video via an interview with the Washington Post, where he said he wishes he could take that moment back and said his actions were just a result of 'being young' and joking around for the cameras.
"The coughing incident was just being young," Wade said. "Taking something that you didn’t think was as serious — and it was serious from the standpoint of sickness and health — and just being a young kid and making fun of something. Trying to get a laugh or do something to the camera."
The future Hall of Famer continued, saying he won't even look at the clip and says it was nothing personal towards Dirk, rather itjust poking fun at the media for making up excuses for Nowitzki.
"I don’t even like looking at the clip. I would tell my son not to do something like that. It wasn’t anything personal [toward Nowitzki]; it was just in the moment of the media trying to come up with stories. Kind of making fun of it, Okay, he’s sick, all right; what other excuse are you going to give him? It became a big thing. Do you mean to do something like that in the moment? Probably not, but you did it. You take it on the chin and move on."
I'm sure it doesn't bother Nowitzki that much now, considering he's retired and ended up winning the series in six games, and beating the Heat for his first title. Nowitzki to this day cherishes getting the preverbal monkey off his back and being forever remembered as an NBA champion and the great player in Mavs franchise history.
As for Wade and Dirk's relationship, the two were 'distant' following the finals, but the two have since crushed any animosity they've had and even teamed up to call some of the action at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
"I think we're good at this point," Nowitzki said during the broadcast. "There were some rough patches. We're good now."
Follow Jasper Jones on Twitter: @jonesj2342
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