Isaac
Years ago
The Dirk Nowitzki Backstory
Everyone following the NBA knows that the Dallas Mavericks are rampant this season and that Dirk Werner Nowitzki is leading their charge.
I didn't know much about his backstory until recently.
He was drafted into the NBA in 1998 as the ninth overall pick by the Bucks and immediately traded up for the sixth pick, Robert Traylor.
In that 1998 draft, the Mavericks nabbed both Dirk and a young Steve Nash with smart trades.
But what before that? The other week, I stumbled across his Wikipedia page:
He was first noticed by the NBA world when a team of American pro stars, including Scottie Pippen, Jason Kidd, Gary Payton and Charles Barkley, came to Germany and played an exhibition game against a German national youth team in September 1997. During the game, Nowitzki dunked over Charles Barkley. Barkley saw a future superstar in the gangly German teenager and later admitted to offering to pay him "any amount of money he wanted if he would come to his alma mater, Auburn."And before that?
Nowitzki did not truly gain international attention, however, until the March 1998 Nike Hoop Summit in San Antonio, Texas, where he notched 33 points and 14 rebounds to lead a team of international juniors to a surprise victory over a U.S. junior team.
His father was a handball player, his mother played on the German national basketball team, and his older sister played college basketball in the US. Dirk never played for a US college - considered it, but did a year of military service instead.
» Dirk Nowitzki on Wikipedia
Shaq is also a fan:
Shaquille O'Neal said of Nowitzki, "The game is changing and the rules are changing. The NBA centers are going more toward the European player. I tell my kids you won't be able to play the game your daddy played. It's becoming a different game. He is where the big-man game will be in four or five years. When you talk great big men, it'll be based on whether guys can play like Dirk or not. Stepping out, shooting the three, midrange game and the low-post game. I'm going to actually let my children watch his game."In ESPN's Weekend Dime, Marc Stein notes that Dirk has dished at least six assists in six of his last eleven outings. Four times in a 10-0 streak, Dirk has gone for at least 30 points and ten rebounds.
And then there are the percentages: 50.5% from the field, 42.9% from long range and 90.6% from the charity stripe.
The Mavericks are currently 50-9 and on track for one of the stronger W-L records in league history. They are on a 15-game winning streak.
