Mavs Champion Shawn Marion on Small Ball: 'I Changed The Game!'

Former Dallas Mavericks versatile forward and NBA champion Shawn Marion claims that he changed the league with how teams now deploy small-ball lineups regularly ... and he has a point.

As one Dallas Mavericks legend — Dirk Nowitzki — gets enshrined at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this summer, another one should eventually get the same treatment in the near future, at least, in our opinion.

Shawn Marion was a four-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA Teamer, and a champion with the Mavs in 2011. He holds career averages of 15.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks in 1,163 games while shooting 48.4 percent from the field.

All of those accomplishments are great, but the real reason Marion should eventually get into the Hall of Fame is due to something that won’t show up on a stat sheet, as he helped change the way the NBA plays basketball.

“I can honestly say I changed the game. I was a big part of changing the game, what we’re watching right now,” Marion told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Small ball. Positionless basketball. It was challenging, of course. I wasn’t on board with it at first. I’m 6-foot-7, 230 pounds. You’ve got me guarding 7-footers. That wasn’t an easy adjustment. But I did it. We did it. It is what it is now. It’s what everybody’s doing now.”

That movement started for Marion when he was with Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudmire and the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns in the early-to-mid 2000s. However, although his offensive production was higher in Phoenix, his defensive versatility reached its peak during the 2010-11 season as he helped Nowitzki and the Mavs reach the ultimate goal.

Dallas has attempted to find their ‘next Shawn Marion’ with guys like Jae Crowder, Al-Farouq Aminu and Dorian Finney-Smith coming through Dallas over the last decade, but none have been able to live up to what ‘The Matrix’ brought to the table.

Perhaps the offseason additions of 24-year-old Grant Williams and promising 21-year-old rookie OMax Prosper can be important, versatile defensive pieces to a championship puzzle one day like Marion was, but only time will tell. It’s hard to replicate production from a guy who should be in the Hall of Fame.

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