Thanks Mutoni!

I would like to thank Marcel Mutoni for this blog posting on the FanHouse. We should all take this into consideration: NOBODY IS PERFECT!

Dirk Admits to Being Nervous In the Clutch
Posted Mar 20th 2007 6:13PM by Marcel Mutoni
Filed under: Mavericks, Western, Dallas

I like Dirk Nowitzki a lot. I don't just like that he's probably the best player to ever come out of Europe, that he can shoot the lights out, or that he'll probably win this year's MVP.More than anything, I love his brutal honesty: He has no qualms about admitting that he loses sleep after really tough losses, and he's one of the few NBA players that will admit to sometimes being nervous at crunch time.

"I think everybody who says they don't get tense, they're lying," Nowitzki said. "It's big games. You got to find ways to stay loose and relax. I've been doing a decent job of not letting the pressure get to me and still enjoying the moment.""I love to have the ball at the end of games. That's what it's all about," Nowitzki said. "We all know if you make it, you're the hero. If you miss it, you're the goat. That's the position you have to be comfortable in. I guess I am."

It's definitely refreshing to hear this sort of thing coming from an elite player in a League where such an admission is often seen as a sign of weakness. Nowitzki and Arenas are probably two of the most honest NBA players, and unsurprisingly, they're also two of the most popular.