Dallas Basketball

Dirk Nowitzki Calls Winning NBA MVP in 2007 'Most Uncomfortable Moment' of His Career

Despite being named Most Valuable Player for the 2007 regular season, the first-round upset loss to the Golden State Warriors overshadowed the award for Dirk Nowitzki.

Michael Mulford

In this story:

Newly minted Hall-of-Famer and Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki is one of the best basketball players of all-time. Nowitzki is almost solely responsible for putting the Mavs on the map, and he kept them there as contenders for the better part of 21 seasons, which included an MVP award in 2007 and an NBA championship in 2011.

But, that 2007 MVP has a bit of an asterisk next to it for Nowitzki. Though the honor is one very few players receive, the timing that year wasn't ideal, as the Mavericks were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the "We Believe" Golden State Warriors. On a recent episode of "Headliners" on Showtime, Nowitzki spoke about how he felt receiving the award.

"I was embarrassed. I let the city and my team down," Nowitzki said. "All I wanted to do was go somewhere where nobody knew me and go on vacation or something."

The need for vacation was strong for Nowitzki and the Mavs, who had just finished up clinching the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with a league-best and franchise-best 67-15 regular season record before losing No. 8 seed Warriors. Before Nowitzki could disappear on a beach somewhere with a beer in hand, he had to face the music.

"Sure enough, I got the call from the NBA. 'Hey, you cannot leave yet. There's a chance you might get the MVP,'" Nowitzki said. "And I remember saying 'just give it to someone else.'"

Nowitzki certainly didn't mean he didn't want to win the MVP award, but the pain from losing in the first round of the playoffs to a team he should've beaten was a tough pill to swallow. "Not this year," Nowitzki said. "I was still so hurt. I was still so embarrassed about it."

Instead of being awarded the MVP trophy in front of the Mavs' fanbase at a home playoff game in the second round, it ended up being an awkward ceremony following the lowest point of Nowitzki's career. 

"It was some of the most uncomfortable moments of my career," Nowitzki said. "All I wanted to do really was be gone, and I took it like a man and talked about it and addressed it right away [about] how disappointed I still was. ... And of course now, looking back at the MVP trophy, it's amazing. It was a great season with a great team."

Follow Michael Mulford on Twitter.

Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Dallas Mavericks? Click Here.

Follow DallasBasketball.com on Twitter and Facebook.

Published
Michael Mulford
MICHAEL MULFORD

Michael Mulford is a writer/editor for Dallas Basketball, where he extensively covers the Dallas Mavericks. He also covers the Chicago Bulls as the Managing Editor for Bulls Wire of USA Today Sports Media Group. Mulford grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and graduated from the University of North Texas in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Event, and Sports Management. He began his pursuit of sports writing in 2017 with Dallas Sports Fanatic, where he covered the Mavericks’ G League affiliate, Texas Legends. He then became the Managing Editor of Dallas Sports Fanatic just one year later and has covered the Mavericks as a credentialed media member since 2018, including covering numerous playoff games between 2021-22 and covering the team at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in 2019. In his time covering the Mavericks, Mulford has conducted numerous interviews for exclusive stories including with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, former Maverick and current VP of Basketball Ops Michael Finley, former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson, and more. You can follow and interact with Mulford on Twitter at @TheMulf.

Home/News