Player of the D.A.Y.
An All-Star leader steps up
There were three players in the running. Tracy McGrady got off to a slow start, then took over and carried the Rockets on a night when Ron Ron scored 39. Great work, but not enough.
The Mavs took the Milwaukee Bucks lightly, with Dallas on a 7 game winning streak and the Bucks being the Bucks. Dallas nearly saw its latest winning streak end until Dirk took over and finished up with a tremendous 38, 11, and 8.
Chris Bosh led the Raptors to what looked like a convincing win over the Bulls, until they choked. Bosh responded by saving their canadian bacon with a key rebound and two free throws.
It could go either way to Dirk or Bosh, but I don’t feel like rewarding the collapse before the free throws, even if they were playing a better team. Dirk Nowitzki could have mailed it in with his team down heading towards the break. Instead he chose to dominate like LEADERS do. Take that Dwyane Wade. And your leaving the court, coming back and dominating the fourth against Portland gets overlooked just because your disrespectful words may have lit a fire under Dirk.
Player of the D.A.Y. is Dirk Nowitzki.
30 Responses to “Player of the D.A.Y.”
Feb.14 at 5:44 pm
trouc says:
chicago better than toronto? you look at their records lately?
Feb.14 at 5:47 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
I meant it like Chicago is better than Milwaukee. Bosh beat a better team.
Feb.14 at 5:48 pm
Chris says:
Can’t really argue with that, the raptors couldn’t buy a bucket in the last two minutes, and gave up huge shots on the other end, they’re still learning how to play with leads down the stretch (see last weeks laker game) and dirk is consistently great. So who wins tonight the celtics or the bucks
Feb.14 at 5:49 pm
trouc says:
ahhh… also, first!
Feb.14 at 5:57 pm
h-wag says:
Great decision. Thumbs up !
Feb.14 at 6:04 pm
Marie says:
All right, Dirk is finally Player of the D.A.Y. Is this his first honor?
Feb.14 at 6:28 pm
Mehmet says:
Finally! Yet Dirk is still looking for his first triple-double ever. It’s about time, he should play at the point and go for it against the Rockets.
Feb.14 at 6:57 pm
Darksaber says:
At last, German Wunderkind ganz wunderbar. His last few games he’s been putting up some amazing STATS! Props Dirk.
Feb.14 at 6:58 pm
Bryant Reeves says:
If Nellie was still in Dallas Dirk probably would be playing the point
Feb.14 at 7:23 pm
h-wag says:
So thank god Nellie isn´t in Dallas anymore…
Feb.14 at 8:19 pm
FLUXLAND says:
Can’t argue with that, Sam. The Raps blew it for Bosh but hey, at least you are giving him a mention. Also, I know the East is weak and the Atlantic has all but one team riddled with injuries but you guys can’t say the Raps are not the story of the year in the East. Unless of course nothing counts until after the break.
Feb.14 at 9:36 pm
DP says:
Bosh has been in beast mode lately and I don’t see him changing back any time soon. play wit it.
Feb.14 at 10:00 pm
Cheryl says:
Same, Wade was no more disrespectful than the German saying they “handed” the Heat the chip. Dwade’s heroics overshadowed GP’s little fountain of youth moment. When Wade went out, Gary looked like this was his time to shine. Gary Payton–Player of the DAY!!
Feb.14 at 10:01 pm
Cheryl says:
sorry, I meant “Sam”
Feb.14 at 10:22 pm
mdshuai says:
See, I disagree with that. Anytime you’re up 2-0 in a series with home court advantage, and you lose the next four games, I would pretty much call that “handing” the series to the other team. And I agree with the afore mentioned comment about being grateful that Nellie is no longer in dallas; strange, to be glad to see a hall of fame coach gone, but thus it stands. Avery Johnson is exactly what this team needed, and Nellie knew it.
Feb.15 at 12:01 am
heatfan says:
Tell Dirk Choke-on-skeet to stop being such a sissy and block more shots than Wade has this season.
Feb.15 at 12:02 am
Hersey says:
What professional athlete would suggest they handed a CHAMPIONSHIP to another team? A game maybe but not a title. Miami beat Dallas and it’s a total cop out to suggest otherwise.
Feb.15 at 1:58 am
Chief says:
DWade for his dominate fourth quarter, this is bullshit.
Feb.15 at 4:59 am
German Reignman says:
Excellent Choice, cause Dirk does not need to fall down seven times in order to get up for the 4th quarter …. February 22 is gonna be interesting ….. and I think it is O.K. to say they handed them the trophy …. that must have been how it felt for this Dallas team …
Feb.15 at 5:48 am
Boing Dynasty says:
Where’s Slava Medvadenko?
Feb.15 at 10:20 am
Lang Whitaker says:
On the Hawks, Boing. Actually, I read the front page and thought the winner was ging to be Joe Johnson, for leading the Hawks back from down 12 in the fourth and hitting the game winner vs. the Clips in L.A.
Feb.15 at 10:50 am
JP says:
I agree with DP above. Bosh is of Beast mode. I’d much rather give the honor to clutch performaces wire to wire like Bosh did to Lakers and Chicago (free throws or what not). The big W is the key. Choke is only relevant if a team loses….’cmon this is NBA action! Anything can happen, you can lead and lose the lead on any given night, on any given team - these guys are are all great!
Feb.15 at 11:24 am
Max says:
Chief, I believe you meant “dominant” $th quarter, assuming you weren’t using a form of the word that no one else knows about..
Feb.15 at 11:25 am
Max says:
And yes I said $th quarter, I wanted to see what it was like making up new conventions for the English language..
Feb.15 at 3:54 pm
John says:
As a Miami Heat fan I’m outraged at Tim Hardaway’s comments on “hating” gay people, growing up as a 10 year old kid I use to look up to him; but not anymore. I can’t fathom why a 40+ year old man is so inmature in the sense of understanding and not discriminating against others. And I’m also flummoxed at how he is now in Las Vegas with NBA Cares doing community work, would he deny help to someone in the gay community, that’s the big question…
Feb.15 at 4:42 pm
Chuck says:
You cannot blatantly PLAGIARIZE what Bill Simmons wrote yesterday: “Whatever you want to call it, the odds say that this will either be the greatest weekend ever or the worst. There isn’t any middle ground.” Go read Simmons post on espn.com from yesterday (Wed) and everyone will see that Khalid (though I like his work) just may be stealing straight from Bill Simmons.. I’m just saying!
Feb.15 at 5:24 pm
Cedric Roberts says:
Give the Hawks some love baby. We young and still learning how to work with our coach forgetting to play some folks, but we coming around. If our bigs can hold people from killin us in the paint we will be alright. Hopefully Coach Woody will remember to play Soloman Jones sometimes and give us some length inside. J-Smoove is the Hawks engine; When he plays well we are running and gunnin. Holla at ya when the break is over. That is a tough stretch. Just pray on it. Peace up A-town down.
Feb.15 at 5:35 pm
TrippleX says:
John, I dont blame Tim… can he help it if he hates gay ppl? it was mistake to say it live, but at least hes expressing his own beliefs… theres a lot of ppl who hate gays as well.. play wit it
Feb.15 at 10:58 pm
stevo says:
dwade 4 sure his a gun
Feb.16 at 2:20 am
Young Bo says:
Yo you know why dallas lost, its not cuz wade got all those calls its because somehow dirk allowed himself to be shut down by udonis haslem, like you have to be kidding me haslem is 6′8 weighs less then lebron and this guy held dirk down the whole series, and i mean if you wanna beef about calls ask every spurs fan about that call dirk got against ginobili, up 2-0 cant win the series, sounds like atlanta braves baseball to me, wade busted y’all heads for 4 straight games, and now is bustin heads again bringin the heat back damn near by himself