Kareem: Dirk being a 'one-trick pony' statement was misconstrued

Over a year after making a controversial assessment of Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - the NBA's all-time leading scorer - wants the 13-time All-Star to know he never intended to disrespect him or his legacy.

"I want to make a shoutout to Dirk,” Abdul-Jabbar said Wednesday on ESPN's The Jump. "Some of the statements I made about him were misconstrued to make it seem like I was trying to knock him and knock his career. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

"He helped the game evolve by stretching the court with his accurate three-point shooting. Anybody that can lead the league multiple times as the leading scorer is awesome. And anything that I said that made anybody think differently, they got it wrong. And I wanted him to hear that from me."

During a panel at George Mason University in February 2016, Abdul-Jabbar referred to Nowitzki as a "one-trick pony" who didn't have a dominant career as a result of not being able to thrive in other areas outside of being scorer, like rebounding and rim protection.

Nowitzki later responded by saying he respected Kareem's opinion, although he strongly disagreed with it.

"I guess he's not a big fan of my game, which is OK," Nowitzki said. "But I like to think I was dominant at some point - especially on the offensive end - of my career, in my prime ... people have opinions. He's one of the greatest ever to play the game, so I'm not going to get in a war of words."

Nowitzki ranks sixth on the all-time scoring list (30,260), although he's still well behind Abdul-Jabbar for the top spot (38,387).