Dirk to Barnes: 'I thought you were a bust in the preseason'
Dirk Nowitzki is a couple months shy of his 39th birthday, and apparently past the point of coating his truth-bombs in sugar, even when the target is a teammate.
To wit: Dirk recently got extremely real with Harrison Barnes, the team's prized free-agent signing who's wrapping up a fine first season alongside Nowitzki in Dallas. Of course, Barnes' Mavericks tenure didn't start out looking too rosy, as he slumped to an abysmal 26.7 percent shooting from the field and 16.7 percent from 3-point range across seven forgettable preseason games.
For Nowitzki, seeing the guy who signed a four-year, $94-million max deal in the summer struggle so badly to get off the ground was cause for some concern, though Nowitzki didn't reveal those worries until well after Barnes had laid them to rest.
"Man, I thought you were a bust in the preseason," Nowitzki recently told his 24-year-old teammate, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
"Thanks for the encouragement, bud," Barnes reportedly replied.
Shouldering by far the biggest workload of his career, the young combo-forward has risen to the challenge. He's averaging a career-best 19.5 points, while sacrificing little in the way of efficiency despite his usage rate ticking up nearly 10 percent from last season.
He may not be Nowitzki's heir apparent in Dallas, but he's clearly not the bust Dirk initially took him for, either.