I was visiting a local mavericks blog, Mavelous, and was inspired to capitalize off of Jake and his readers’ comment momentum on the argument of whether the Mavs are tough enough. Jake referred to some ridiculous article on Hoopsworld about how the Mavs should consider signing Charles Oakley, implying he would bring toughness and veteran leadership, which in my opinion is absolutely absurd.
The point of Jake’s post is that humiliation brings toughness, and toughness isn’t taught. He made some valid points, although the Marines seem to be pretty tough and they’re taught and trained to have a tough mindset. I agree with him on most points – especially that Oakley is a 42 year-old has been… i.e. not the solution the Mavs are looking for.
However, I never got beaten up by the 200 lb. fat girl in elementary school, so I can’t really say firsthand whether humiliation builds toughness. But is toughness really the issue? I am not convinced it is really the issue. I mean, do we really want Dirk to be this guy?
That would be humiliating. Getting spanked by the Golden State Warriors is pretty bad too. I’m sure they will have Golden State and Baron Davis’ big ass grill stamped onto their memories all season long.
There is always talk comparing Duncan and Nowitzki. These were brought up in the comments on the Mavelous blog. Here are the facts:
Tim Duncan – 20 pts. | 10.6 rebounds | 3.4 assists
Dirk Nowitzki – 24.6 pts. | 8.9 rebounds | 3.4 assists
The way some people talk, you’d think Duncan is a basketball god and Dirk is just a scrub. The numbers don’t lie. They are virtually the same player, yet Dirk has more upsides because he is younger and can spread the floor.
Dirk is not the guy who is soft. If that were true, Duncan would be as well, as would Garnett and Stoudamire. All these guys play the same position and have similar stats.
Oh, it must be the stuff you don’t see in the stats – those “intangibles;” like Dirk getting his teeth knocked out or when he gave Dampier a verbal bitch slap.
So is it really toughness?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Aaron,
I totally agree with your point. I think toughness is basically irrelevant to discussions of team strength, because it is already part of other things, execution primarily. To be able to perform like Dirk at his level requires that he be tough. End of story.
I would add that one of the indications of Dirk’s toughness is his consistency. You can’t perform at his level day in and day out against a wide variety of teams without having intense concentration and the ability to filter out distractions, which makes him mentally tough.