Dirk Nowitzki wasn’t the first to shoot a fade-away jump shot. Far from it. Players like Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson perfected it long before he did. But his fade-away came with a twist: off of one leg, his lanky, seven-foot frame lifting the ball high above his head where no defender could possibly touch it. Dirk took a shot that was fairly common and made it his own. Now players like LeBron James and Kevin Durant have imitated his shot.
Dirk Nowitzki has a way of bending the game of basketball into his own goofy, gangly style.