Bill Peterson is in his first season with the Bucks as Assistant Coach & Player Development. (Getty)

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February 6, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, who have collectively won the last three National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player awards, have a common thread.

And it runs beyond their shiny hardware and the six seasons they spent as teammates.

Neither player considered himself a finished product when he entered the NBA – Nash in 1996 and Nowitzki in ’98. The fact that they share the same perspective today speaks volumes about them.

Statistics can be misleading, but in the cases of Nash and Nowitzki, they’re pretty telltale. Just check the NBA standings and the leader boards.

They didn't always look that way, though.

Nash averaged 3.3 points in about 10 minutes per game during his rookie campaign. He didn’t average more than 9.1 points or 5.5 rebounds per outing until his fifth season, with his second team.

Nowitzki, who played three years of professional ball in Germany before making his NBA debut, averaged a meager 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in his rookie season with the Dallas Mavericks.

Nash shot .423 from the field as a backup point guard for the Phoenix Suns; Nowitzki shot .405, mostly as a reserve forward with Dallas.

None of these numbers knocked anyone’s socks off. And they didn’t guarantee their owners long-term careers in the Association, either.

Fast-forwarding to 2008, Nash and Nowitzki have made the NBA MVP Award their traveling trophy for three years running, and their teams have been among the league's best during that span..

So how did these two players, from their humble beginnings, escalate their games to the elite status they hold today?

First, they took a look in the mirror and decided to change a lot more than their hairstyles.

Second, they passionately dedicated themselves to practicing their craft.

And third, they grasped the helping hand of Bill Peterson.

During their visits to Milwaukee this season, both Nash and Nowitzki made it clear that they haven’t forgotten the influence that Peterson – now in his first year as an assistant coach/player development for the Bucks – had on their careers.

“Billy was great,” Nash said, grinning broadly at the mention of Peterson’s name. “He just pumped us with a lot of confidence and was always there for us – for encouragement or to drills, or just to rebound.

“It’s invaluable to have people like him around when you’re developing as a player.”

Peterson began carving his NBA niche as a developmental coach with the Dallas Mavericks in 1998, the same year in which Nash arrived in “Big D.” He was dealt by Phoenix to the Mavs in exchange for a 1999 first-round draft choice, the draft rights to Pat Garrity and two fellows named Martin Muursepp and Bubba Wells.

Nash was far from being the All-Star performer he is today, but that didn’t bother Peterson at all. He saw in the product of British Columbia a willing listener who was driven to improve, and he was more than willing to put in the time to help.

I'm really a patient person,” Peterson said. “I've been through a lot, and I've learned a lot, and I'm willing to sit with a guy and teach him and work with him.

“What I have found through doing that is guys appreciate it. They realize, 'Hey, this guy's for real.' I don't want anything out of it; I just want to make them better."

In Peterson, Nash found a coach who was willing to work overtime, just as he always has.

“Billy’s just great,” Nash reiterated. “He’s extremely enthusiastic, passionate, knowledgeable and a tireless worker, and that, I think, goes a million miles. He got some of the keys to success worked out right there.

“It was a pleasure to work with him. He had some fun and innovative ideas.”

Peterson has always tried to devise a diverse range of drills, and he presented at least one that was right up Nash’s alley.

“In particular, his ballhandling stuff was great,” Nash said. “He had a whole routine that was really cool. It was great for kids, and it was great for pros.

“It was very valuable to us to have someone who had something that was fun and challenging and skillful at the same time. It was a different routine that was really cool.”

Peterson didn’t specialize at the Mavericks’ point-guard station, either. Nowitzki, whose rookie season with Dallas coincided with Nash’s arrival, remembers the drills, too.

"Oh, man. He had me doing some crazy stuff,” Nowitzki said of Peterson. “He was a ballhandling freak.

"He had some interesting drills. Obviously, he's been around. We did all sorts of ballhandling drills and lots of shooting drills. He was great.”

Peterson’s assistance to Nowitzki didn’t end with ballhandling drills and shooting technique work. The native of Germany was a mere 20 years old, had just arrived in the United States and was more lost off the basketball court than he was on it.

Peterson, having spent time overseas, understood that Nowitzki needed a welcome wagon every bit as much as he needed a developmental basketball coach, if not more so. So he took on both responsibilities.

“One of the biggest things people just don't realize is there tends to be an issue of loneliness for foreign players who come to the U.S. for the first time,” Peterson said. “If you have a son who’s 19 and you take him to a foreign country and leave, he's on his own. Where's he going to eat? What's he going to eat? How's he going to order? How's he going to go shopping?

“There are so many things they have to learn that are new. That's how it was for Dirk when he first came over here. Dirk didn't know how to write a check. He'd never written a check in his life.”

Enter Bill Peterson.

“ I took him to the grocery store, I shopped with him, I cooked a meal for him one time,” Peterson said. “Being on the basketball court was one thing, but at night, he still had to go back to his apartment, and here he was, by himself, in a country where he'd never been before. He was 19 or 20 years old. It's not like it is with most of us, where you just pick up the phone and call somebody you know and understand.

“There are a lot more emotions to it than people think."

Nowitzki, almost 10 years later, still remembers those days well.

“For me, I was new back then,” he said. “I didn't really know anybody. Billy would meet me at night at the gym and work me out.

"I think we went and bought some beds together once. When you're young like I was, in a new country, you need a couple of people to help you out. I was in a new place, and I didn't have any friends there. He was great, though. He was there for me."

Peterson didn’t spend all of his time with Nowitzki doing the talking. He listened, too. And he didn’t confine himself to working with the Mavericks’ two future All-Stars, either.

"I learned a lot from Dirk, too,” Peterson said. “And the Mavericks had another guy named Bruno Sundov (a 7-foot-2-inch Croatian). He lived with me. He was only 18. They put me in an apartment, and my wife and family had to stay back for the year because my daughters weren't out of school.

“Bruno lived in my apartment and I basically became his surrogate father. Here was an 18-year-old kid, and he spoke English OK, but he didn't know about our customs and what they were all about. I basically took him under my wing and tried to father him and teach him, and I learned a lot from him, too.

“His parents had never been to America and didn't know anything about it. Helping Bruno was an interesting experience for me, too. There's a lot you can learn if you're willing to open your eyes and your ears."

There’s obviously a lot a person can teach if he follows those guidelines, too. Nash doubts that Peterson will ever grow tired of doing that.

"No,” Nash said. “Billy’s 24-7. All energy. With his drills, he's always pushing you. He's great.

"Every organization needs people in the background working hard, and Billy's definitely one of the best."

Check out the Bucks when they take on the Mavericks in Dallas on Feb. 6 and you might catch a glimpse of Bill Peterson in that background, probably in the row of charis behind the players on the bench.

His influence, though, will be front-and-center --personified by the visitors and members of the home team, too.