Dirk Nowitzki is 37 years old and nearing the end of his NBA career, but he still plans to play out his existing contract.
Nowitzki did the Dallas Mavericks a favor by signing for a limited amount of money in his final deal. He’s earning just over $8.3 million this season and has a player option at nearly $8.7 million for 2016. Though he’s up there in age, he’s planning to play through next season.
“I always said that when the body is hurting every day, and when you’ve got to do all this extra stuff to just play, I think that’s when it’s time to go,” Nowitzki told USA Today’s Sam Amick in a story published Thursday. “But I feel good. I feel good right now and I felt good this summer. I mean, we had a five-games-in-six-days for the (Eurobasket), and I got through that just fine. … I felt good. I don’t need to pop a thousand pills to play or practice. So as long as that’s still good, and it’s still fun to go. I’m going to definitely ride this contract out (this season and next). I don’t know. We’ll see what happens after that.”
He certainly is playing well enough to continue his career for the foreseeable future. Dirk scored 31 — including 5-of-6 from long range and a huge three at the end to beat the Clippers on Wednesday. He’s averaging 18.9 points and 7.5 rebounds in 27.6 minutes per game this season. Those are numbers any team would love to have.
