If nothing else comes from this year's NBA Finals (aside from the arrival of Dwyane Wade as the newest "next Jordan"), it is my hope that the national media can figure out the correct way to pronounce the name of Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki.  Nowitzki is German, and linguistic logic dictates that the "w" should be pronounced as a "v" , or No-vit-skee.  That's the way I've always heard it; it's even broken down that way on his ESPN.com player page.  But during these playoffs, listening to different commentators reveals that many choose to go with the phonetic pronunciation - "No-wit-skee".  This discrepancy speaks poorly to the professionalism of those broadcasters who fail to take the time to learn the proper pronunciation of the players they cover.

A similar situation arose on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball this past weekend involving Jon Miller, one of baseball's most respected broadcasters, who referred to Boston Red Sox reliever Rudy Seanez as Rudy "See-AHN-yez", whereas local commentators typically pronounce his name "See-an-ez" (the ESPN web site supports Miller's pronunciation).  Regardless of who is correct and who isn't, it is a show of disrespect toward Seanez, Nowitzki and all other professional athletes to mispronounce their names without making an attempt to correct the error.