Kevin Durant to KAT: Mavs' 'Dirk Nowitzki is Greatest Big Man Shooter Ever'

Karl-Anthony Towns thinks he's the greatest big man shooter of all-time, but Kevin Durant thinks more respect needs to be shown toward Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki.

Dalton Trigg | Mar 24, 2022

One reoccurring, albeit silly, theme this season has been Karl-Anthony Towns proclaiming himself as "the best big man shooter'' in NBA history.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been surging in the second half of the season, and Towns has been playing at an MVP-level on top of winning the 3-Point Contest at All-Star Weekend, so he's feeling good about himself, and there's certainly nothing wrong with self-confidence.

But ... when you trail a certain all-time great German 7-footer by 1,217 career 3-pointers, it can be perceived as being disrespectful to completely overlook such numbers.

Just ask Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, who has had his fair share of battles with Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki over the years and even modeled some of his game after him.

Kevin Durant and Dirk Nowitzki had many exciting battles against each other.

6CF824BF-57B6-4979-939A-FCD6EF014DFA — © Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The Mavs defeated the Timberwolves 110-108 on Monday night.

Karl-Anthony Towns attempts to drive past Dwight Powell.

"There was a lot of bunny hops into shots and jump-spins into shots that Dirk did," said Durant on the latest episode of The ETCs podcast. "It was impressive. ... The movements, I was practicing [them]. To see him do it, I understood how his shot was so sharp to a tee, so I wanted to get to that point."

Durant mentioned the legendary-but-unorthodox workouts Nowitzki went though each summer with his long-time trainer, Holger Geschwindner, before bluntly setting the record straight in response to Town's lofty claim.

"[Dirk's the] greatest big man shooter of all time," said Durant. "Although I respect KAT. ... But for KAT to say that, come on."

Dirk Nowitzki, Luka Doncic and Jason Kidd at All-Star Weekend.

Dirk Nowitzki laughs with Allen Iverson at the NBA's 75th anniversary ceremony.

Dirk Nowitzki was unsurprisingly selected to the NBA's top-75 players list as part of the league's 75th anniversary this season.

If Towns can continue his current pace for at least another decade and have some of his shooting success translate into some postseason wins, then maybe there will be a real debate. Through seven seasons, Towns has only one postseason win, whereas Nowitzki had 25 postseason wins and a Western Conference Finals appearance at that point in his career.

But for now? Dirk Nowitzki is the undisputed greatest big man shooter in basketball history. Everybody – including Towns and the Wolves – knows it, even if they don't want to admit it.

Published Mar 24, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.