Fire Nowitzki as Top 10 All Time

Carlisle needs to simmer down when praising Dirk.

Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle is expected to be a little biased, but when he said recently that Dirk Nowitzki is one of the 10 best to ever play the game he was flat wrong.

Carlisle told ESPN that: Dirk "is a top 10 player in NBA history because of the uniqueness of his game and how he's carried this franchise on his back for over a decade. He's just right. He's leading the team. His shot-making is great. He's passing the ball great. He's one of the guys that's directing traffic for us defensively."

That's not really overwhelming evidence, so let's look a little deeper. The two things Nowitzki does best are score from the field and score from the foul line. In those categories he's 23rd and 13th all time, respectively. Kind of hard to say he's top 10 when he's isn't one of the 10 best at either of the things he does best. He was the best for a season, in 2006-2007, when he scored 24.6 points per game, averaged 8.9 rebounds and won an MVP, but as Bill Simmons pointed out in "The Book of Basketball," Dirk's MVP campaign was statistically weaker than Larry Bird's best 9 seasons, Charles Barkley's 10 best seasons and Karl Malone's 11 best seasons.

Then there's the elephant on the court - the fact that Dirk hasn't won a title. The Mavericks have no doubt been handicapped by bias on the part of at least one NBA referee, but that's not the only reason Dirk is 0-12 when it comes to winning championships. Yes, the Mavericks just swept the Lakers and if they win a title this season, it will undoubtedly elevate Dirk on the all-time list. But look at consensus top-10 players like Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Those guys all have multiple titles. A player doesn't have to win a title to be among the greatest ever (see Barkley and Malone) but nobody can get serious consideration for the top 10 without a ring. Nowitzki is without a doubt an all-time great, but he is just not as good as Carlisle said.