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#2 Bittersweet MVP season (2006-07)
Winning the Most Valuable Player of the league requires a player coming out on a nightly basis and lay it all on the court. It requires a player who is ready to apply all his heart and mind to the game, requires the player to be better, more consistent and more responsible than the other 300 plus players in the league.
Dirk left no stone unturned in the 2006-07 season after missing out on the honour in two earlier seasons to former teammate and friend Steve Nash by slim margins.
He led the Mavericks to the best record (67-15) in the NBA, scored 1,138 points in his ninth NBA season, averaging team highs of 24.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and a career-best 3.4 assists while setting career-highs in field goal percentage (.502), three-point field goal percentage (.416) to become the first European-born player to win the NBA MVP award.
This season featured his sixth straight All-Star appearance and he was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year.
This didn't come easy and surely didn't come too early. Dirk was named the MVP after the Mavericks suffered a first-round upset to the eighth seed Golden State Warriors. It was just the third time in NBA history that a No.1 seed lost to a No.8 seed. The playoffs exit was a heartbreak to the Dallas franchise but Dirk winning the MVP meant a big deal.
In an interview Dirk mentioned- "When I think about my MVP season, I will also think about the loss to Golden State. But winning the award as Most Valuable Player of the NBA is just a huge honor. I didn't really realize how big it was until Mark Cuban had tears in his eyes at the award ceremony."
