Dirk Nowitzki

Basketball Player

• Born: June 19, 1978
• Place of Birth: Würzburg, West Germany (now in Germany)

SPORT: Basketball

Early Life

Dirk Werner Nowitzki was born and raised in Würzburg, a German town between Frankfurt and Nuremberg. His was a professional sporting family. His father, Jorg Werner, was a professional handball player who played for a team that competed all over the world. His mother, Helga, was a professional basketball player who played on the European circuit. His sister, Silke, was accomplished in both track and field and basketball.

From an early age, Nowitzki was a tall child who towered above most of his classmates. He played tennis and handball through his junior high school years but did not play in his first competitive basketball game until he was fifteen. Among the things that moved him to take up basketball was his frustration with the treatment he received from classmates because of his size.

Nowitzki joined a local Würzburg team that was part of a national youth basketball program. During his first year, his play attracted the interest of a former German international basketball player, Holger Geschwindner, who was so impressed by Nowitzki's talent that he offered to be his personal coach. After providing Nowitzki with a year of unorthodox training that emphasized shooting and passing over strength training, Geschwindner asked him if he wanted to play against the greatest players in Germany or against the greatest players in the world. At the age of sixteen, Nowitzki chose to play against the best in the world.

Youth League

As Nowitzki finished his schooling and national military commitment, he also continued to develop his basketball game. Too young to enter the professional ranks, he continued to play in the German youth league. His coach decided that with his height and shooting skills, Nowitzki would be better as an outside shooter than a low-post, inside shooter and shot-blocker. Nowitzki's first team played poorly, and because of his poor grades in school, he spent much of the season on the bench. As the years progressed, however, he grew more confident, and his talent blossomed.

In his final season in the German youth league, Nowitzki put up excellent numbers. After only five years of playing, he had risen from a bench player to a starter who averaged 28.2 points per game. In the championship game, he scored twenty-six points and was named the German basketball player of the year, an amazing improvement for a boy who had started out as a tennis player.

Meanwhile, Nowitzki's prowess on the basketball court also drew international attention. Scouts from the National Basketball Association (NBA) were taking notice. In the 1998 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks made Nowitzki an early first-round pick, and Nowitzki became only the fourth German player to enter the NBA.

Dallas Mavericks

Nowitzki's first season in the NBA was disappointing, but Dallas made major changes before his second season began in the fall of 1999. Billionaire Mark Cuban bought the team, instantly introducing new excitement that both coaches and players were happy to see. Dallas also had a new lineup built around Nowitzki, Michael Finley, and point guard Steve Nash, who became known as the Big Three. During his second season, Nowitzki doubled his scoring average and played well enough to be named to the league's all-sophomore team. When the 2000–1 season began, Nowitzki was named one of the Mavericks' cocaptains. That season, he helped lead the Mavericks to the playoffs for the first time in more than ten years.

From that time, both the Mavericks and Nowitzki continued to improve, and Dallas became playoff regulars. At the end of the 2001–2 season, the team advanced to the Western Conference Finals but lost to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2003–4, the Mavericks lost in the first round of the playoffs, but Nowitzki had proven that he was a go-to player with terrific talent. The following season was a roller-coaster period that saw many changes, including the departure of Steve Nash, who had become Nowitzki's best friend, and the Mavericks' longtime head coach, Don Nelson.

Avery Johnson replaced Nelson as coach and raised the Mavericks to even greater heights. Meanwhile, Nowitzki continued to put up outstanding numbers. After the 2004–5 season ended, he finished third in the vote for the league's most valuable player (MVP), behind former teammate Nash and superstar Shaquille O'Neal.

Dallas's 2005–6 season was a barn burner. The team won sixty games, and Nowitzki averaged 26.6 points and nine rebounds per game. Although the Big Three were no longer together, Nowitzki proved to be a team leader on whom the Mavericks could depend. In the spring of 2006, he led the team to its first appearance in the NBA Finals. The Mavericks won the first two games against the Miami Heat, but Miami won the next four games and the NBA title in a surprising turnaround.

Nowitzki and the Mavericks rebounded during the 2006–7 season by posting the league's best record with sixty-seven wins, which was also a franchise record. Nowitzki won the league's MVP award—the first European player ever to win this NBA honor. However, in a shocking upset, the Mavericks fell to former coach Don Nelson's Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs.

During the 2007–8 season, Nowitzki put up good numbers once again and replaced Maverick legend Rolando Blackman as the team's all-time leading scorer. He also recorded his first career triple-double (reaching double digits in three statistical categories in a game) with a twenty-nine-point, ten rebound, twelve assist performance. However, the Mavericks again lost in the first round of the playoffs. At the end of the season, Johnson was fired. When Nowitzki started the 2008–9 season, his eleventh in the NBA, he was still in the prime of his career, with promising future prospects. Indeed, in January 2009, he again made the Western Conference All-Star team.

During the 2009–10 season, Nowitzki reached a career total of 20,000 points on January 13, 2010, becoming the thirty-fourth NBA player and the first European to pass that milestone. During the regular season, he scored an average of twenty-five points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game. He made his ninth All-Star Game appearance in February 2010. The Mavericks finished as the second seed for the 2010 NBA Playoffs, but once again, the team failed to advance past the first round, falling to the Spurs. Nevertheless, Nowitzki performed well in the postseason, averaging 26.7 points, 8.2 rebounds, and three assists per game. After the 2009–10 season ended, Nowitzki became a free agent; however, in July 2010, he re-signed with the Mavericks after agreeing to a four-year deal reportedly worth $80 million.

Nowitzki was injured during part of the 2010–11 season. Despite missing nine games, he was selected to make his tenth All-Star Game appearance. In the 2011 NBA Playoffs, the Mavericks defeated the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round, swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, and beat out the Oklahoma City Thunder—four games to one—in the conference finals. In the conference finals, Nowitzki set an NBA record with twenty-four consecutive free throws in a game and making the most free throws in a single game without missing. The Mavericks then defeated the Miami Heat, four games to two, in the 2011 NBA Finals, earning the team its first championship title. Nowitzki was named the NBA Finals MVP, having averaged twenty-six points and 9.7 rebounds per game in the series. Nowitzki became just the third foreign-born player to win the Finals MVP, following Hakeem Olajuwon and Tony Parker.

The 2011–12 regular season was shortened by a lockout, which ran from July to December 2011. Nowitzki scored his 24,000th career point on April 15, 2012, in a game against the Lakers. He also made his eleventh All-Star Game appearance, but his eleven-season streak with more than 1,500 points came to an end due to the shortened season. The Mavericks were swept by the Thunder in the first round of the 2012 NBA Playoffs. Nowitzki then missed the first twenty-seven games of the 2012–13 season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in October 2012. He returned on December 23, 2012, and scored his 25,000th point on April 14, 2013, becoming the seventeenth player to do so in NBA history. The Mavericks failed to make the 2013 Playoffs, ending a twelve-year streak.

During the 2013–14 season, Nowitzki scored his 26,000th career point on January 29, 2014. On April 8, 2014, Nowitzki surpassed Oscar Robertson to rank in the top ten on the NBA all-time scoring list with 26,712 career points. In the 2014 Playoffs, the Mavericks lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. In July 2014, Nowitzki re-signed with the Mavericks with a three-year contract worth $25 million; he reportedly turned down max contract offers from the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers, worth $97 million over four years, to stay in Dallas for his seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth NBA seasons. On November 11, 2014, Nowitzki surpassed Olajuwon as the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history with 26,953 career points. That same week, on November 17, Nowitzki became the fourth player in NBA history to score 27,000 career points with the same franchise, joining Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, and Kobe Bryant. The Mavericks lost in the first round of the 2015 Playoffs to the Rockets.

During the 2015–16 season, Nowitzki surpassed Shaquille O'Neal to take sixth place on the NBA's career scoring list on December 23, 2015. On January 13, 2016, in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he became the fourteenth NBA player to play for 46,000 career minutes. On February 21, 2016, in the third quarter of a game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Nowitzki shot a three-pointer to surpass 29,000 career points. In a game against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 20, 2016, Nowitzki shot his twentieth career forty-point game, making him the first thirty-seven-year-old player to score a forty-point game since Karl Malone in the 2000–1 season. On April 11, 2016, the Mavericks clinched a spot in the Western Conference playoffs for the fifteenth time in sixteen years with a win over the Utah Jazz; in that game, Nowitzki hit four three-point shots, making him the fifteenth player in NBA history to score at least 1,7000 career triples.

Nowitzki continued to climb the rankings in various statistical categories over the next few seasons. Despite mounting injury troubles, he reached the 30,000-point mark in the 2016–17 season, becoming just the sixth player (and first international player) to do so and the third to do it with just one team. Yet even with his continued strong play, the Mavericks missed the postseason. After the season, Nowitzki opted to enter free agency, but with the intent of resigning with Dallas for less money, giving the team flexibility to sign other players. This team-first attitude further burnished Nowitzki's status as a player's player and a fan favorite. During the 2017–18 season, he became the sixth NBA player to reach 50,000 career minutes played, surpassed 31,000 career points, and moved into fifth place all-time in career games played before an ankle injury ended his campaign. Dallas once again missed the playoffs.

Nowitzki signed a new one-year contract with the Mavericks for the 2018–19 season, and his season debut set an NBA record for most seasons spent with one team. His twenty-one seasons played also tied the overall NBA record. Although his play by this time was not consistently as brilliant as it had once been, Nowitzki was added to the All-Star Game—his fourteenth selection—as a special representative in commemoration of his illustrious career. During the regular season, he took over sixth place on the all-time NBA scoring list. With Dallas set to miss the postseason once again, Nowitzki announced his retirement at the team's last home game and was showered with tributes and other honors. He finished his career with 31,560 total points scored and as the Mavericks franchise leader in many statistical categories.

Nowitzki remained active in his retirement. In 2019, he co-authored The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life. The book was translated into English in 2022. In 2021, Nowitzki joined Dallas as a special advisor to the team, assisting in making front-office and coaching decisions. In January 2022, Dallas officially retired Nowitzki’s number 41 jersey and, later that year, unveiled a statute of Nowitzki outside of American Airlines Arena. Besides spending time with his family, Nowitzki remained active in his Dirk Nowitzki Foundation, which focused on providing education and healthcare to children worldwide and made various media appearances. 

Summary

Dirk Nowitzki became a superb basketball player who balanced his worldwide fame and outstanding talent with his personal life and his commitment to his team, the Dallas Mavericks. A rarity in modern sports for his loyalty to a single franchise, Nowitzki established himself as not only exceptionally durable over the course of a long playing career but also simply one of the greatest power forwards of all time. By the time of his retirement from the NBA in 2019, he was sixth on the all-time scoring list, and his legacy was cemented as one of, if not the, greatest foreign-born basketball players ever—and one of the best of his generation regardless of heritage.

Nowitzki also used his fame and fortune for philanthropic causes. Among other initiatives, he formed the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation, a charity group that promotes educational and wellness initiatives for children.

Bibliography

Dixon, Schuyler. “Mavericks Retire Dirk Nowitzki's No. 41 in Emotional Ceremony.” NBA.com, 22 Sept. 2022, www.nba.com/news/dallas-mavericks-retire-dirk-nowitzkis-no-41-after-win-over-curry-warriors. Accessed 13 June 2024.

Dwyer, Kelly. “Dirk Nowitzki’s Knee Surgery Will Keep him out Six Weeks, and it Was a Long Time Coming.” Yahoo Sports, 19 Oct, 2021, sports.yahoo.com/dirk-nowitzki-knee-surgery-keep-him-six-weeks-185112566--nba.html. Accessed 13 June 2024.

Fernandez, Gabe. "Dirk Nowitzki Calls It a Career." Deadspin, 10 Apr. 2019, deadspin.com/dirk-nowitzki-calls-it-a-career-1833931993. Accessed 3 May. 2019.

MacRae, Sloan. Meet Dirk Nowitzki: Basketball's Blond Bomber. New York: PowerKids, 2009.

Pagels, Jim. “Dirk Nowitzki Passes Up Most Money In NBA History.” Forbes, 16 July 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/jimpagels/2014/07/16/dirk-nowitzki-passes-up-most-money-in-nba-history. Accessed 13 June 2024.

Smallwood, John. Heroes of the Hardwood. New York: Scholastic, 2005.

Zuehlke, Jeffrey. Dirk Nowitzki. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2008.