<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> Dirk Nowitzki has heard the catcalls from fans who formerly had reserved seats on the Mavericks' bandwagon.</p> You know who you are. And to those who refuse to trust the Mavericks after their demoralizing finish last season, Nowitzki's response may come as a mild surprise.</p> He understands your lack of faith.</p> "We can go 82-0 and people will say, 'They're going to lose, they don't have what it takes,'" Nowitzki said.<span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> The MVP and center of the Mavs' universe believes there's some credence to the widespread notion that this team is headed toward six months of wheel-spinning during the regular season.</p> Not that the 82-game grind will lose all meaning. That would be an overstatement. But Nowitzki knows the drill.</p> Nothing that happens before the playoffs will get them the respect they crave. And that challenge might just turn out to be healthy for them.</p> "Last year, we were one of the favorites to win it all and maybe the pressure was a little high," Nowitzki said. "Maybe this year, we're going to be underdogs, which probably is not a bad role for us to be in."</p> Nowitzki joined the rest of the Mavericks on Monday for media day. Training camp officially begins today with a pair of practices.</p> It's the beginning of a long journey the Mavericks hope will have a much happier ending than last season, when a record 67-win regular season was flushed down the drain with a historic first-round loss to Golden State.</p> Nowitzki spent his summer traveling to Australia to try to clear his mind, playing for the German national team (finishing fifth in the European championships) and trying to get rid of the painful playoff memories. Impossible to do, he said. But as he touched on several subjects Monday, he also said that sometimes a team has to fail before it can learn the final lesson.</p> "It's not bad," he said of being the underdog. "San Antonio last year did just that. Everybody said after they lost to us [in 2006] that they were too old and can't do it anymore. Next thing you know, they won it again."</p> But Nowitzki – entering his 10th season with the 27-year-old franchise– is realizing that getting the Mavericks a championship is the toughest task of all.</p> "It's easier to turn a franchise around into a winning team," he said. "It's not easy. But it's easier than taking it all the way. That last step is hard. It's a beast.</div></p> Source: Dallas News</p> </span></span></p> </span></span></p>
