Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki is hosting a charity tennis tournament on Sunday, and Ben Stiller is among the celebrities and pro tennis players who are planning to attend. How did that connection come about?
We’ll just let Dirk explain:
Dirk Nowitzki on getting movie star Ben Stiller to play in his charity tennis game: "I slid into his DM's, like the kids say these days."
— Earl K. Sneed (@EarlKSneed) September 15, 2016
Nowitzki had a more thorough explanation for how he hooked up with Stiller in an interview with the Mavs official website.
“I always see him at the U.S. Open watching tennis, I always see him at the Garden watching some hoops. I know he follows me on Twitter,” he said. “Wifey’s like ‘Hey, who should we invite? Doesn’t Ben Stiller follow you on Twitter?’ She was like, ‘Why don’t you throw him a message?’ So I DM’d my guy Ben Stiller and — never spoken a word to him, though — and just politely said ‘Hey, huge fan of yours. I know you’re a huge tennis fan, this is what I’m doing on Sunday.’ But this was a few months ago, not thinking I’m gonna get a response or anything. Next thing I know, the same day I get this reply. ‘Hey, that sounds awesome, sounds really cool, I’m not that good at tennis but I’m really interested.’ So we stayed in touch.”
We wouldn’t expect anything less from Dirk. The future Hall of Famer flies under the radar as one of the most underrated funny people in sports, which we saw again recently when he responded to being called a defensive liability. It’s no surprise Dirk slid into Ben Stiller’s DMs and it worked out for him.
