Dirk Nowitzki played 21 seasons in the NBA and over that span, he witnessed an evolution of the game. And while basketball is still among his main loves, he takes issue with certain aspects of said evolution.
In 1998, the Milwaukee Bucks selected Nowitzki with the ninth overall pick. He was quickly traded to the Dallas Mavericks and that’s where he spent the next two-plus decades. Never did he maneuver for a trade or attempt to compile some sort of “mega team.” He stuck with the organization and found success through chemistry and hard work.
And that’s precisely the issue Nowitzki takes with modern NBA players.
“It’s definitely new,” Nowitzki said on SI’s Crossover podcast. “We always felt like we the players didn’t have enough power at the beginning of my career, and the owners had all the power, could make all the moves. And now it’s almost shifting like a little bit too much. I think there should be like a happy medium. But now the players forcing themselves out, to me is not the way to go, either.”
Nowitzki stressed that he doesn’t want to come off as disrespectful to the players, but just can’t wrap his mind around the repeated power grabs.
“I was old school,” Nowitzki added. “(Personally), I don’t want to sit here and judge these guys that are doing that. I think everybody has to know what’s best for themselves, for their career, for their brand—you know, everybody has a brand now — and what’s best for their family. For me, it was staying in Dallas. It worked out great there. And I’ve had my family there and I loved it and I grew into that community. So that’s something that just worked for me. But of course, I get it. It’s not for everybody.”
Roots aren’t planted in quite the same way they once were. In recent years, not only have we seen the emergence of the “mega team” aimed at winning an easy ring, but we consistently see players force trades via any means necessary. James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, Russell Westbrook and John Wall are just some of the names that come to mind.
And Nowitzki could have been one of them. He admits the opportunity was there toward the end of his career to force a move and maybe pick up a ring. He relented out of loyalty to the Mavericks’ organization.
“At the end of my career, I could have maybe tried somewhere else to get that ring,” Nowitzki said. “I think that would have been really the only reason for me to leave. But for me, Dallas was the place. The people have supported me from the beginning, even when things weren’t going right for me in my first year.”
The decision to stay loyal to Dallas paid huge dividends for Nowitzki, who picked up his one and only NBA championship in 2011.
Photo: Nov 22, 2019; Dallas, TX, USA; Former Dallas Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki smiles to the crowd during the first quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
