Dirk Werner Nowitzki (; born June 19, 1978) is a German former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with whom he played his entire 21-year career as a power forward. Listed at , he is widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time and is considered by many to be the greatest European player of all time.
An alumnus of the DJK Würzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was chosen as the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks and was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks. Nowitzki led the franchise to 15 NBA playoff appearances (2001–2012; 2014–2016), including the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance in 2006 and its only NBA championship in 2011. Known for his scoring ability, versatility, accurate outside shooting, and trademark one-legged fadeaway jump shot, Nowitzki won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2007 and the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in 2011.
Nowitzki is the only player to ever play for a single NBA franchise for 21 seasons. He is a 14-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, the first European player to start in an All-Star Game, and the first European player to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player Award.Nowitzki is first European to be named MVP, ESPN, May 16, 2007. Retrieved January 6, 2008 Nowitzki is the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history. The first Maverick to be voted onto an All-NBA Team, he holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records. On December 10, 2012, he became the first non-American player to receive the Naismith Legacy Award. Following his retirement, Nowitzki stood sixth on the NBA all-time scoring list.Career points leaders Basketball-Reference.com – NBA & ABA Leaders and Records for Points – retrieved October 31, 2019
In international play, Nowitzki led the Germany national team to a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and a silver medal in EuroBasket 2005; he was the leading scorer and MVP in both tournaments. He is also the first German men's player to have his number retired, receiving this honor in September 2022. In 2021, he was selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. Nowitzki was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023 and into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2026.
Early life Born in Würzburg, Germany, Dirk Werner Nowitzki comes from an athletic family: his mother Helga () was a professional basketball player and his father Jörg-Werner was a handball player who represented Germany at the highest international level. Helga was a member of the West Germany national team that participated at the 1966 EuroBasket Women. His older sister Silke Nowitzki, a local champion in track and field, also became a basketball player and now works for the NBA in International TV.
Nowitzki was a very tall child; most of the time he stood above his peers by a foot or more. He initially played handball and tennis. He managed to become a ranked junior tennis player in the German youth circuit, but soon grew tired of being called a "freak" for his height and eventually turned to basketball. Watching the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball "Dream Team" also caused Nowitzki to gravitate towards basketball. After joining the local DJK Würzburg, the 15-year-old attracted the attention of former German international basketball player Holger Geschwindner, who spotted his talent immediately and offered to coach him individually two to three times per week. After getting both the approval of Nowitzki and his parents, Geschwindner put his student through an unorthodox training scheme: he emphasized shooting and passing exercises, and shunned weight training and tactical drills, because he felt it was "unnecessary friction". Furthermore, Geschwindner encouraged Nowitzki to play a musical instrument and read literature to make him a more complete personality.
After a year, the coach was so impressed with Nowitzki's progress that he advised him, "You must now decide whether you want to play against the best in the world or just stay a local hero in Germany. If you choose the latter, we will stop training immediately, because nobody can prevent that anymore. But if you want to play against the best, we have to train on a daily basis." After pondering this lifetime decision for two days, Nowitzki agreed to enter the full-time training schedule, choosing the path to his eventual international career. Geschwindner let him train seven days a week with DJK Würzburg players and future German internationals Robert Garrett, Marvin Willoughby, and Demond Greene, and in the summer of 1994, then 16-year-old Nowitzki made the DJK squad.
Professional career DJK Würzburg (1994–1998) When Nowitzki joined the team, DJK played in Germany's second-tier level league, the Second Bundesliga, South Division. His first trainer was Pit Stahl, who played the tall teenager as an outside-scoring forward rather than an inside-scoring center to use his shooting skills. Nowitzki chose to wear the jersey number 14 because Charles Barkley wore that number during the 1992 Olympics. In the 1994–95 Second Bundesliga season, ambitious DJK finished as a disappointing sixth of 12 teams; the rookie Nowitzki was often benched and struggled with bad school grades, which forced him to study rather than work on his game. In the next 1995–96 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki established himself as a starter next to Finnish star forward Martti Kuisma and soon became a regular double-digit scorer. After German national basketball coach Dirk Bauermann saw him score 24 points in a DJK game, he said, "Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest German basketball talent of the last 10, maybe 15 years."
In the 1996–97 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki averaged 19.4 points per game and led DJK again to second place after the regular season, but could not help his team gain promotion. In the following 1997–98 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki finished his "Abitur" (German A-levels), but had to do compulsory military service in the Bundeswehr which lasted from September 1, 1997, to June 30, 1998. The 18-year-old, who had grown to tall, made progress, leading DJK to a 36:4-point total (in Germany, a victory gives 2:0 points and a loss 0:2) and ending as leading scorer with 28.2 points per game. In the promotion playoffs, DJK finally broke its hex, finishing at first place with 14:2 points and earning promotion to the next higher league; Nowitzki was voted "German Basketballer of the Year" by the German BASKET magazine.
Abroad, Nowitzki's progress was noticed. A year later, the teenager participated in the Nike "Hoop Heroes Tour", where he played against NBA stars like Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen. In a 30-minute show match, Nowitzki outplayed Barkley and even dunked on him, causing the latter to exclaim: "The boy is a genius. If he wants to enter the NBA, he can call me." On March 29, 1998, Nowitzki was chosen to play in the Nike Hoop Summit, one of the premier talent watches in U.S. men's basketball. In a match between the U.S. talents and the international talents, Nowitzki scored 33 points on 6-of-12 shooting, 14 rebounds and 3 steals for the internationals and outplayed future US NBA players Rashard Lewis and Al Harrington. He impressed with a combination of quickness, ball handling, and shooting range, and from that moment a multitude of European and NBA clubs wanted to recruit him.
Dallas Mavericks (1998–2019) Difficult start (1998–2000) Projected to be the seventh pick in the 1998 NBA draft, Nowitzki passed up many college offers and went directly into the NBA as a prep-to-pro player. The Milwaukee Bucks selected Nowitzki with the ninth pick in the draft and traded him to the Dallas Mavericks in a multi-team deal; future star point guard Steve Nash came to Dallas in the same trade. Nowitzki and Nash quickly became close friends. Nowitzki became only the fourth German player in NBA history, following pivots Uwe Blab and Christian Welp and All-Star swingman Detlef Schrempf, who was a 35-year-old veteran of the Seattle SuperSonics when his young compatriot arrived. Nowitzki finished his DJK career as the only Würzburg player to have ever made the NBA.DJK Basketball: Wir über uns , djk-wuerzburg-basketball.de. Retrieved March 9, 2008 Nowitzki was unable to continue to wear his No. 14 jersey with the Mavericks because Robert Pack was already wearing it, so he swapped the digits and wore No. 41 instead.
In Dallas, Nowitzki joined a franchise which had last made the playoffs in 1990. Shooting guard Michael Finley captained the squad, supported by center Shawn Bradley (once a number two draft pick) and team scoring leader Cedric Ceballos, an ex-Laker forward. The start of the season was delayed by the 1998–99 NBA lockout, which put the entire season in jeopardy. In limbo, Nowitzki returned to DJK Würzburg and played thirteen games before both sides worked out a late compromise deal that resulted in a shortened NBA schedule of only 50 games. When the season finally started, Nowitzki struggled. Played as a power forward by coach Don Nelson, the 20-year-old felt overpowered by the more athletic NBA forwards, was intimidated by the expectations as a number nine pick, and played bad defense; hecklers taunted him as "Irk Nowitzki", omitting the "D" which stands for "defense" in basketball slang. He only averaged 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in 20.4 minutes of playing time.Dirk Nowitzki Statistics , Basketball-reference.com. Retrieved January 6, 2008 Looking back, Nowitzki said: "I was so frustrated I even contemplated going back to Germany.... [the jump from Second Bundesliga to the NBA] was like jumping out of an airplane hoping the parachute would somehow open." The Mavericks only won 19 of their 50 games and missed the playoffs.
On January 4, 2000, team owner Ross Perot Jr. sold the Mavericks to Internet billionaire Mark Cuban for $280 million. Cuban quickly invested into the Mavericks and restructured the franchise, attending every game at the sidelines, buying the team a $46 million Boeing 757 to travel in, and increasing franchise revenues to over $100 million. Nowitzki lauded Cuban, stating that he "created the perfect environment... we only have to go out and win." As a result of Nelson's tutelage, Cuban's improvements and his own progress, Nowitzki significantly improved in his second season. Nowitzki averaged 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 35.8 minutes. He was voted runner-up in the NBA Most Improved Player Award behind Jalen Rose, and made it into the NBA All-Star Sophomore squad. The Nowitzki also was chosen for the Three-Point Contest, becoming the tallest player ever to participate. While he improved on an individual level, the Mavericks missed the playoffs after a mediocre 40–42 season.
First playoff appearances (2000–2004) Nowitzki further improved his averages, recording 21.8 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. As a sign of his growing importance, he joined team captain Finley as only one of two Mavericks to play and start in all 82 games, and had 10 games in which he scored at least 30 points. Nowitzki became the first Maverick ever to be voted into the All-NBA squads, making the Third Team. In addition, his best friend Nash became a valuable point guard, and with Finley scoring more than ever, pundits took to calling this trio the "Big Three" of the Mavericks.