Sep 8, 2015 1:04 PM
Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol were supposed to be the wave of the future. Part of the first generation of Europeans who grew up watching Michael Jordan and the Dream Team, they were two of the headliners of the surge of international players in the early 2000’s who helped change the NBA. It wasn’t just where they were from. It was who they were. Pau and Dirk rejected a lot of the traditional assumptions about big men. They weren’t bruisers who wanted to bang around the basket - they were artistes with the footwork of ballerinas who could score from all over the floor and do wondrous things with the ball in their hands.