Dirk Nowitzki's Alley-Oop Dunk In Last Night's All-Star Game Was His First Since 2004.
Well, go figure: Dude wasn't even supposed to be in last night's NBA All-Star Game — and yet there the Dallas Maverick icon Dirk Nowitzki was, a last-minute add to the Western Conference squad, and stealing the show just the same.
Seriously, check out what he did with just more than two minutes left in the third quarter of last night's game:
Yuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Making it even greater? We all know how much Dirk loves him some alley-oops, even if, per ESPN, he hasn't thrown one down himself since 2004.
Before tonight, Dirk's last alley-oop dunk was on January 3…2004!— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 16, 2015
For what it's worth, Steph Curry told USA Today that he and his teammates had lobbied to set Dirk up with an alley-oop at some point in the night — but that, in the moment, he didn't necessarily realize it was Nowitzki he was setting up for the dunk.
Still: Nowitzki, for his part, is appropriately thankful that Curry didn't toss the ball up too high.
“He kept it nice and low, below the rim for me to get it,” Nowitzki told ESPN's Tim McMahon in a moment of humility that has otherwise taken a back seat to the glee he showed in his immediate post-dunk reaction.
Said Nowitzki to ESPN's Marc Stein after his team's win last night, in which he dropped five points in 12 minutes of play: “Hey, that's what I do.”