The worst thing about the 98-99 NBA lockout to me was being robbed of a couple of months of Vinsanity and White Chocolate highlights. Since the season started mid-season, on February 5th of 1999, we also didn't get an All-Star game and possibly a Vince Carter appearance in the dunk contest a year before the epic 2000 one. Better yet, a possible dunk-off between Vince and 1997 Dunk champion Kobe Bryant!

Besides 32 extra games of Vince Carter and Jason Williams, we were also robbed of some extra time to watch rookies like Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic, and a headband-less Paul Pierce.

Here's what those rookies did in their NBA regular season debuts.

• Vince Carter vs Celtics: 16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block (5-11 FG, 0-1 3pt)
• Paul Pierce vs Raptors: 19 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4 blocks (7-14 FG, 2-4 3pt)
• Dirk Nowitzki vs Sonics: 2 points, 0 rebounds, 4 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks (0-5 FG, 0-1 3pt)
• Peja Stojakovic vs Spurs: 2 points, 1 rebound, 0 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks (1-6 FG, 0-3 3pt)
• Jason Williams vs Spurs: 21 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals, 1 block (9-19 FG, 3-7 3pt)

Vince would end up winning the Rookie of the Year award among arguably the most exciting rookie class in NBA history. A class that also featured these familiar names: Rafer Alston, Ricky Davis, Mike Bibby, Antawn Jamison, Rashard Lewis, Keon Clark, Cat Mobley, and Ty Lue!

The one good thing that came from the NBA lockout are these great Nike commercials featuring Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson.

VINSANITY

WHITE CHOCOLATE

DIRK

THE TRUTH

RICKY DAVIS

PEJA

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On June 19th of 1984, the Houston Rockets made the great decision to pass on Michael Jordan and draft Akeem (No H yet) Olajuwon with the #1 pick in the NBA draft. As crazy as it sounds to say passing on The GOAT was a great decision, drafting the hometown favorite who turned out to be arguably the most talented center of all-time and helped bring two NBA championships to the city was in fact a great decision.

Other teams who can proudly say they made the best decision with their #1 pick include the Bucks (Kareem), Blazers (Bill Walton), 76ers (Allen Iverson), Magic (Shaq, Dwight Howard), Cavs (LeBron, Kyrie Irving) Spurs (David Robinson, Tim Duncan), Hornets (Larry Johnson, Anthony Davis) and Lakers (Elgin Baylor, James Worthy, Magic Johnson).

A fun question to debate is who was the best #1 pick among #1 picks and likewise for the rest of the first round? Rukkus via HoopsAddict created this pretty cool infographic featuring their picks at each spot to help you decide. Although I would agree on most of these players being the best pick at their number, I can't call them the best pick for that team because some of these players were traded by the team that picked them - like Dirk (Bucks) and Kobe (Hornets).

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My favorite Dirk Nowitzki story is probably this Charles Barkley one about meeting a young Dirk. Although Barkley was willing to pay him to go to Auburn (it was a joke) and a believer in Dirk's skills, the same can't be said about a lot of NBA fans in 1998.

Dirk's rocky start to his NBA career started on draft night when Dallas fans booed the Mavs for trading #6 pick Robert "Tractor" Traylor (RIP) for the German import with the awful hair cut and Pat Garrity. Looking back at the deal, it looks like one of the steals of the century. And if you consider the Mavs were able to flip Garrity for Steve Nash, then you might have the best trade of all-time. But, it would take some time until Dallas fans felt that way.

During Dirk's rookie season, the Big D fans nicknamed Dirk the same way they did Jason Kidd earlier in the decade, by omitting the first letter of their first names: Ason Kidd because he didn't have a J and Irk Nowitzki because he couldn't play any D. At eight points a game, Dirk didn't do much scoring in the shortened lockout season either but did show a lot of potential. After scoring just two points in his debut, he had a double-double of 16 and 12 in his second game. The 16 would be his highest scoring output until he put up a season-high 29 two months later and the double-double turned out to be the first of just two in 47 games.

Due to his frustrating rookie experience, Dirk even considered going back home to Germany. Then along came new owner Mark Cuban -- fresh off his near 6 billion dollar sale of Broadcast.com. Cuban created the perfect comfortable environment for Dirk and he responded with 18 points per game, which was good enough to place second in Most Improved Player of the Year Award votes.  It was also good enough to land him in the 2000 NBA Rookie vs Sophomore game, where he put up 17 points and 6 rebounds.

Over a decade later, Dirk is now known as a Champion and a future Hall of Famer; A far cry from the rookie days when he dreaded game days.

YOUNG DIRK

DRAFT NIGHT

ROOKIE INTERVIEW

1st 20 POINT GAME

ROOKIE SOPHOMORE GAME

TOP 50 PLAYS

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36 year old Dirk Nowitzki didn't score 41 points like Westbrook, didn't cross anybody like Steph, or posterize any defenders but he did have the play and dunk of the night during Sunday's All-Star game. In one single epic play, Dirk  channeled Michael Jordan by catching an oop with his tongue sticking out and channeled his ex-teammate Vince Carter by pointing up to the sky after the dunk the same way Vince did in the 2000 NBA dunk contest. .

“We were actually joking Coach was going to write up an alley-oop play for him,” said Steph Curry, who threw the lob. “But he needed to get loose. When that play happened, when I threw it, I saw him at the last second. I didn’t know who it was.

“When I made my mind to throw it up, I looked to see who it was. I already committed to throwing it. I just hoped he could get up there, and he did.”

As great as it was seeing Dirk catch his first lob since 2004, Steph enjoyed the Vinsanity tribute more.

“The celebration was even better than the dunk, pulling out the old Vince Carter celebration. So that was pretty clever.”

"Hey, that's what I do," Nowitzki jokingly said to Marc Stein in an ESPN Radio interview about his oop. “The guys are killing me. They said the last alley-oop I had was in the Hoop Summit in '98. It was great. Steph lobbed it up for me. He kept it nice and low, below the rim for me to get it."

During the post game interview Dirk also said he was "happy" because he "got a dunk and a 3."

Whether he knows it or not, he did a whole lot more than that,  What Dirk did was sum up what All-Star weekend should be - a time to have fun, honor the stars before you and inspire the ones who will be NBA stars in the future.

I'm happy too!

BONUS VIDEO

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“The sky hook is still a work in progress. I might keep that for year 18. We’re still working on it…”

Mark Cuban said he doesn't expect any of his players to score 20 points a night and doesn't want Dirk to be a "20-point scorer." But if Dirk manages to occasionally slip in the most unstoppable offensive move into his offensive repetoire then I don't see how he's not going to be a casual 20-point scorer.

“The sky hook is a tough shot, especially if you have no move, if you don’t come out of the rhythm and just turn around and shoot it,” said Nowitzki, who ranks 10th among all-time scorers, a mere 11,601 points behind Abdul-Jabbar. “That’s why no one else is shooting it like Kareem. I don’t know how he did it. That shot is unbelievable.

“Out of the move, it’s OK. Once I’ve got a running start, I can actually shoot it OK. The problem is I’m 36. I don’t get a lot of running starts anymore, so I’m screwed.”

Even at age 25/26, Dirk was able average nearly 22 a game last season with his jumper and fadeaway.

“I don’t just want to rely on a fadeaway all the time,” Nowitzki said. “Sometimes you have to go middle, make a strong move there, get fouled or swing a little hook. I’ve just got to mix it up a little bit more than just a right-shoulder fadeaway all the time.”

Source: ESPN

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