At just 175 centimeters tall, J.J. Barea not only held his own against NBA giants, but also won the NBA championship in 2011 with Dirk Nowitzki. The former point guard of the Dallas Mavericks has experienced a lot with the German basketball legend – and in an interview with ntv.de he chats about the opening of the new NBA store in Berlin. The now-retired 38-year-old Puerto Rican tells of meetings to keep Nowitzki from too much training, a foul that almost “killed” him – and of Nowitzki’s special way of partying.
ntv.de: Mr. Barea, the NBA MVPs of the last four years, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic twice each, come from Europe. In addition, Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks is dominating more and more. What’s going on there?
JJ Barea: When I came into the NBA in 2006-07 I could only see the beginnings of that. But you could feel the momentum, the role of the Europeans in the league was getting bigger. Now it’s a whole different level, it’s completely out of control (laughs). I didn’t think it would take on these crazy proportions so quickly though. The strong Europeans are wonderful and the NBA is happy to have gone truly global. There will definitely be an NBA season game in Germany soon.
For a long time they played together with arguably the best European NBA player to date, Dirk Nowitzki, but joined the Mavericks as a 21-year-old youngster after Dallas lost dramatically to the Miami Heat in the finals.
Dirk nevertheless treated me directly me a lot of respect. He was incredibly fun from the start and we quickly became friends. He also made my life on the court a lot easier. We could wind up our pick and roll game all night. Dirk was the best competitor I’ve ever played with. He wanted to win no matter what the cost. But the team always came first for him. The championship against Miami in 2011 was the greatest moment of both of our careers.
What part did Nowitzki have in the current Euro Stars development?
Players like Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol were the cornerstones and opened the door for this explosion. When Dirk won the MVP in 2007, as a tall, not really strong or athletic shooter, it showed a lot of players outside the US that they could do it too. Today’s basketball is a lot faster and just getting better. It goes from one basket to the next at a rapid pace and everyone wants to throw as fast as possible. But for all the European stars it will be difficult to ever outperform Nowitzki. But Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic have a chance.
After all, like you and Nowitzki, Antetokounmpo already has an NBA title under his belt.
Many don’t understand how difficult it really is to win the championship. It’s almost impossible (laughs). And a lot of people can’t believe how good Dirk was this year and how strong we really were as a team. We had the perfect team chemistry at exactly the right time.
It is said that Nowitzki’s training, preparation and attitude were important success factors.
Dirk’s preparation was absolutely insane. Sometimes it even got to be too much. I remember we even had meetings because of this to get Dirk to relax the night before games. We had to tell him: ‘Stay in your room and chill or just sleep!’ He always put in an extra workout before our practice in the morning. Then he did the same thing again afterwards. After we then flew to the venue, he grabbed a taxi with Holger Geschwindner and rushed into some hall to throw.
How did the team react?
At the time I thought to myself: If I only do 25 percent of Dirk’s preparations and training sessions, then I’ll be fine (laughs). Dirk was a great role model for all of us in that sense and he made the Mavericks that much better. Everyone saw how much he works and everyone knew that they had to work harder. I didn’t play very much during my first few seasons in Dallas and I borrowed Holger to coach whenever I could.
As Dirk got older, he also noticed how he had to change his training so that he could keep up at his high level. It really wasn’t easy. He paid even more attention to his body and trained more with weights outside of the gym.
You once said in a podcast that Nowitzki hated the Miami Heat team in 2011. Was it anger that made the German legend possible for the title?
Not just Mavs fans, fans from many different teams kept their fingers crossed for us back then because we were up against the Big 3 of the Miami Heat (LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh; d. Red). That was special. After losing the final in 2006, Dirk had to wait five years to be able to play in the final for the title again. He knew in 2011: I’ll probably never get this chance again and this time I can’t miss this opportunity. The fact that it was LeBron in the final and not Kobe Bryant didn’t play a big role. We also beat Kobe and his Lakers along the way.
In the Western Conference semi-finals, the Mavs swept the Los Angeles Lakers off the floor with a 4-0 win, also thanks to their strong performance.
Victory in this series was enormously important for us. The Lakers were the reigning NBA champions and we just couldn’t beat them in the regular season. Once we cleared that hurdle, we knew anything was possible.
Then there was this game situation when I went to the basket and Andrew Bynum (the 7-foot-10 center of the Lakers at the time; ed.) almost killed me. I will never forget that. On the one hand, I was just happy that I got through it unharmed. On the other hand, this action was super important for my career, because afterwards my self-confidence increased, I played even better and everything took its course.
After everything had taken its course, there was certainly a huge party …
Clear! And this time it wasn’t difficult to persuade Dirk to celebrate. It was usually really hard to talk him into a party. We literally had to drag him out of the room. He was always focused on his job and that’s why he made it to one of the greatest of all time. But after the championship, Dirk freaked out like all of us. Dirk is a special party animal that almost became too much. He’s almost aggressive when he’s partying, he’ll grab, shake and sometimes hit you (laughs).
A typical German way of partying. What other special Nowitzki moments do you remember?
Dirk really liked going out to eat and always invited everyone. That was always very special. We talked about everything from family to friends to love and laughed a lot. I think Dirk played for so long because he just loved having fun with his teammates. Now let’s talk about our children and which sports we want to introduce them to.
The new star in Dallas is of course Luka Doncic, with whom you also played together in the Mavs. A year ago you said that the Slovenian had not yet reached his full potential.
And I think his game is still growing. It’s normal to take some time to get used to the NBA. It was the same with Dirk. Luka is faster than most and you can see that he is performing even better this year than last season.
For most players, 30 points is a career night. It’s just another night in the office this season for 23-year-old Doncic, who has become the first player in 60 years to scoop more than 30 points in all of his first seven games.
Luka is so incredibly talented. Everything looks so easy with him, it will be even more so in a few years. Everything depends on whether he wants to work on himself as hard as Dirk did back then. But Dirk is on site in Dallas and is helping him. Luka is a smart boy, he has observed Dirk closely during their year together and is now asking what he knows. If Dallas comes out with a good result at the end of the season, Luka has a great chance of winning the MVP trophy.
Is it enough for the NBA title twelve years after your triumph with Dirk Nowitzki?
I always hope the Mavericks win, but the Milwaukee Bucks around Giannis Antetokounmpo are the strongest team right now. Dallas has yet to find a replacement for Jalen Brunson (who joined the New York Knicks before the season; ed.), someone who can create chances from dribbling. But overall it’s a really strong team this year and with Luka you always have a chance anyway.
With JJ Barea spoke to David in need
(This article was first published on Saturday, November 05, 2022.)
