Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest European player in NBA history. He also started the trend of stretch-4, which is the big man having the ability to shoot threes. This is a major trend that you can see in the NBA today, if you are a big man that cannot shoot threes then they will probably not be playing. Now that the game is becoming a small ball league, meaning that the game is faster paced and that means big men are not as relevant in todays game. In order for the big men to have an impact on a team they need to be extremely versatile and be able to shoot the ball. This is all because of Dirk Nowitzki and his ability to shoot the three pointer as a seven footer. He also created one of the most effective shots in NBA history, the one-legged fadeaway. This shot was Dirk’s signature move, he would turn around stick one leg out so that the player defending him couldn’t block his shot and he would shoot the ball.
Not only did Dirk create a trend of small ball, he created the trend of european players playing in the NBA. “According to USA Today, when the current 2016-17 season started, he is now one of an NBA-record 113 international players from, also an NBA-record, 41 countries" (Teves). This allowed for the likes of Manu Ginobili and now Luka Doncic to have successful NBA careers because of the outstanding career Nowitzki has had. Due to Dirk’s success, european and other foreign players have been given the opportunity to play at the highest level basketball can be played. Before Dirk European players had a bad reputation of trying to play in the NBA, but they would always fail and have short and unsuccessful NBA careers. Dirk changed the mindset of many NBA teams, who now search for the next seven foot sharpshooter to add to their roster.