The fewer words I spend wasting your time between seeing this headline and watching this video, the better. Here’s is a clip of Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki playing one on one with Will Kolassa from last week, when he visited Kolassa at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas:
A few things.
Kolassa is a Chicago Bulls fan. And in the face of the greatest Maverick in history, after being given an iPod by the MVP of the 2011 NBA Finals, Will stuck to his allegiance to the red and black. Chest bump for that young man.
Secondly, the kid’s move? On point. Post-up, jab step, fallaway jumper over the bigger opponent. Shot lefty, which we’re guessing Dirk wasn’t expecting, elbow perfectly placed under the ball. Nicely done, Will.
Then there’s Kolassa’s defense. He’s aware that Nowitzki is right handed, so he keeps his left arm free to block the shot, while giving Dirk the NBA-legal one forearm in the back. Two arms would be a foul, Will is no doubt aware; as he also watches for Nowitzki’s patented step away jumper in the lane off of the wrong foot. When Will contests Nowitzki’s miss, he leaves himself enough space to grab the rebound; and because they’re playing “21” and the ball didn’t hit the rim, Kolassa immediately goes up for the follow. You have to go quickly, because Dirk Nowitzki is 7-feet tall. There was obviously much pregame scouting involved, here.
Nowitzki ties the score up before the game ends, but only after committing a clear double-dribble violation at the 1:24 mark of the video. The shot shouldn’t have counted. Not cool, Dirk Nowitzki. Not cool.
Actually: Very cool, Dirk Nowitzki. And nice work, Will Kolassa.
Hat-tip to the Center, which sent the video to Scott Bell of the Dallas Morning News, and we found it via BuzzFeed.
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