Honestly, it kills me that Dirk isn't debated at top 10 of all time. Had he not gotten screwed over so hard in 2006, he would have been in talks for sure.
People have very short memory... They only tend to remember what was recent, or what has happened, or what they want to remember. Even if 99% of the hardcore basketball fans say he got screwed in 2006, at the end of the day, it is in the history books as him only getting 1 ring... The way 2006 happened, doesn't matter at all, because the results says otherwise..
I can't stress how much Dirk has OVERACHIEVED his entire career with the Mavs. Had he gotten rings on two separate occasions, he seriously would have been in talks for GOAT top 10.
Hell, prior to 2011, he was getting so much crap for being a choke artist or whatever, people completely ignoring the fact how much he overachieves and his 2006 finals.. All 2011 did, was earn Dirk the respect he already deserved in the first place, and make those choke statements go away...
Had he gotten 2 rings, his first one would have gotten him the respect he deserved plus even more, since people will be eyeing Dirk every season after 2006, and witnessing him continuously getting 50+ seasons, and the second one will almost for sure have had people talking about the Top 3 GOAT PF or top 10 all time, not debating if he's better than so and so or still getting called overrated...