Dirk Nowitzki Biography Dirk Nowitzki bio Dirk Nowitzki came about his athletic stardom honestly-one could say he was born to it. Dirk Werner Nowitzki was born on June 19, 1978, in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. His father, Jörg, was a successful handball player with TG Würzburg, and his mother, Helga, played on the Women’s National Basketball Team. Growing up with athletic parents, it was no surprise that young Dirk took to sport in a big way, excelling in handball, gymnastics, and particularly tennis. He had not yet reached his teens when bitten by the "basketball bug". With a poster of idol Scottie Pippen on his wall to inspire him, Dirk, along with his older sister Silke, played basketball for their local Bundesliga team, DJK Würzburg (the X-Rays). When basketball, rather than handball, proved Dirk’s true passion, there was a momentary disappointment on the part of the elder Nowitzki, but it soon faded? While in his early teens, Dirk suffered a fever during which he experienced a notable "growth spurt." He asked his parents how tall they thought he would eventually be, and they took him to a doctor, who measured Dirk’s wrists and informed his parents that their son would surpass two meters in height. His destiny seemed certain. When Dirk was 15, he met his mentor, former national player Holger Geschwindner, whose unconventional, think-outside-the-box approach to training not only refined Dirk’s rough talent but expanded it, utilizing such other areas of learning as music, fencing, chess and ballet to improve his skills. Dirk graduated from the Röntgen-gymnasium school, and spent nearly a year in the German Army, where he would later say he learned what it was he wanted in life. In 1998, he played in the Nike Hoop Summit, where NBA talent scouts would be impressed by the multi-talented young player, and that same year he entered the NBA draft. Chosen 9th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks, Dirk was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks, with coach/general manager Don Nelson predicting Dirk would be Rookie of the Year. It wasn’t to be that simple for the young immigrant. First, the season had been abbreviated by a labor dispute and lockout which delayed the beginning of the season until early 1999. Dirk struggled during this short first season, at an average of only 8.2 points per game in 18 games played. He also was facing a strange country, the NBA "culture shock", a new language, and thousands of miles distance from his family and friends. Enter teammate Steve Nash, acquired by Dallas in a trade with Phoenix at the same time Dirk had arrived. Steve saw a shy, desperately homesick young man who needed a friend, and invited Dirk over to watch soccer on TV and share some pizza. The two clicked immediately and have been the best of friends ever since. It was a good thing for both of them that they had the strong bond of their friendship to get through their first couple of years in Dallas. Steve was underachieving by his own and everyone else’s standards, and faced regular boos and criticism, but he stood strong, not only knowing that he would improve, but finding ways to get Dirk more "in the game" and increase his confidence. And Dirk’s second season was an improvement, certainly, finishing with 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game and finishing second in the voting for Most Improved Player-but it was only an inkling of what was to come. Dirk improved his stats to 21.8 points and 9.2 Rebounds per game in 2000 - 2001, and to an impressive 23.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game during the Mavericks’ short-lived playoff stint that season. He had also placed second in the All-Star Weekend Three-Point Challenge in 2001. The 2001 - 2002 season would bring yet more accolades. He was selected to the All-Star team for the Western Conference for the first time along with Steve, and would again improve his seasonal performance, to 23.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game (8th overall in the NBA in both categories that year). Again, the Mavericks made it into the playoffs, making it as far as the second round before falling to the Sacramento Kings. Dirk’s playoff numbers had reached 28.4 points and 13.1 rebounds average. Not bad for a 23-year-old; nor was his selection to the All-NBA Second Team. The summer of 2002 was an eventful one for Dirk. Upon the end of the Mavs’ season, he had surgery on his ankle to remove bone spurs. With his usual determination, he got back into playing form and led the German Men’s National Team to their first ever medal, a bronze, in the World Championships in Indianapolis that September. Dirk himself was also awarded the Most Valuable Player trophy for the tournament. He had averaged 28.4 points per game. Fourteen consecutive victories got the Mavericks’ juggernaut 2002 - 2003 season off to a roaring start. Again, Dirk and Steve (who had now also proven himself a truly great player) made the All-Star team; again, the Mavs made it into the postseason. Dirk started the playoffs with a bang, racking up a career-high 46 points in the first game against the Portland Trailblazers. The Mavs made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals this time. An NBA Championship seemed within their grasp, until Game 3 of the series against the San Antonio Spurs, when in the fourth quarter, a Spurs player collided with Dirk’s left leg, resulting in a sprain that ended his season-and the Mavericks’ championship hopes-prematurely. Despite that heartbreaking disappointment, Dirk could be proud of his achievements nonetheless, having improved his seasonal performance to 25.1 points (6th in the NBA) and 9.9 rebounds per game, and his abbreviated postseason ended at 25.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. He had also, again, been named to the All-NBA Second Team. Dirk dedicated most of the summer of 2003 to working out and playing with the German national team, in hopes of their obtaining a berth in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and thereby fulfilling a great dream of his. Despite an ankle sprain suffered in a rough game against France in the Supercup two weeks before the Eurobasket tournament began, Dirk played well, showing no more signs of either his knee or ankle injuries by the time Team Deutschland reached Sweden. Despite a couple of "wobbles", things started out well, until a demoralizing loss to Lithuania, followed by a close—but unsuccessful—elimination game against two-time Euro champs Italy, eliminated the Germans from the tournament, dealing a painful setback to yet another great goal of Dirk’s. The Mavs’ 2003 - 2004 season proved to be a heartbreaking anomaly; for himself, Dirk would refer to it as a "lost year". It was expected that they would trade for a "big man" center and possibly more defensive muscle. Such muscle they obtained in Danny Fortson, and a reliable gunner in Antawn Jamison, both from Golden State (a trade that cost them, among others, ’03 hero Nick Van Exel). But in an even more last-minute trade, the Mavs brought in Tony Delk and - controversially - Antoine Walker. The move relegated Jamison to the bench (where he subsequently earned Sixth Man of the Year honors), but Walker never meshed with the team’s style. Their record suffered, the Big Three’s stats suffered, and Dirk suffered...in silence. For the first time since his rookie year, Dirk’s points per game had retrogressed (to 21.8, ninth in the NBA), as did other stats (his rebounds fell to 8.7 per game), and his three-point shot in particular seemed to have abandoned him. Discouraged and frustrated, he relied on Geschwindner’s guidance and Nash’s friendship through a rough season. The silence ended at last in March, when, reacting in part to Walker’s public complaint about lack of playing time, Dirk made a rather public statement of his own, calling out the Mavericks from owner to benchwarmer, taking his own share of the responsibility, and exposing the team’s inner dysfunctions. The outburst cost him a fine from the team, but it proved well worth the expense, earning the praise of teammates and the action of Coach Nelson, who changed the team strategy to a nearly undefendable "small ball" approach that won 8 of their last 10 regular season games. During one week, Dirk averaged 32 points per game and won the league’s Western Conference Player of the Week award. The seedings for the Western Conference playoffs were not decided until literally the final buzzer of the last regular season game, and the Mavs, in fifth place, drew the slumping fourth-place Sacramento Kings. In any normal year, the two teams bring out the best in one another, but this time, as some German sport sites put it, the Mavs seemed only to "awaken a monster" in the Kings. Ironically, Dirk proved to be the only Mav in the series whose three-point shot average exceeded his regular field goal percentage (.467 to .450) and he played his heart out, averaging 26.6 points and 11.8 rebounds in over 42 minutes per game. Losing the first two in the California capitol, the Mavs bounced back with a resounding win in Game Three at home...then lost the fourth, leaving the team - particularly Dirk - stunned and "in mourning". They started the fifth game with a huge lead, but that dwindled, and in a cruel twist of fate, the final play went through Dirk, who had been plagued with insomnia for days and had played the entire 48 minutes. Despite a valiant game on his part, the end came down to a forced shot through an uncalled foul, and a miss. An ending all wrong for an athlete whose efficiency rankings had risen to elite status in the season - fifth in league efficiency ranking, and an impressive third place in total efficiency points with 1861. And in the harshest irony, his points per game average stood as the highest among all 2004 playoff participants. Dirk’s 2004 "summer season" started with a punch to the gut - his constant friend, Steve Nash, had moved on to the Phoenix Suns in free agency when the Mavs declined to match the Suns’ generous offer. Putting that aside, Dirk trained hard and took place in three exhibition games with the German national team. After trouncing Estonia, Team Deutschland took a measure of revenge on eventual Olympic silver medallists Italy (who had eliminated them in Sweden a year before) with an impressive win. On August 4th came the hot ticket event - Team Deutschland vs Team USA. While many expected a USA blowout, it was a close game throughout, Dirk tying it up with a three with a couple seconds to go, and the USA winning literally at the final buzzer on an Allen Iverson three. While no-one had expected an upset, the close loss was nearly as good as a win in that it seemed to put Germany back on the world hoops radar. The frustration of watching the Athens Olympics from a distance must have spurred Dirk’s determination in August, because he continued to train hard and then returned to the German national team in September for the qualifying tournament for the 2005 European Championships. (The pre-Olympic exhibitions and the first four games of the qualification tournament were all that were covered in Dirk’s insurance package.) Under new coach Dirk Bauermann, the German team, full of young, new players in the absence of several key injured players, performed like a powerful unit. The first four games, against the Ukraine (twice), Belgium and Hungary, were all German victories led by either Dirk or fellow star Ademola Okulaja. Four games, four wins, and Germany had their slot for ’05 - but it wasn’t enough for Dirk, who made arrangements to play in Game 5 in Charleroi, Belgium, leading the Germans to another win and the best possible seeding position for the next year. (Germany, minus Dirk or Okulaja, would also win the sixth and final game.) The 2004-05 NBA season was destined to be one of transition. Without his longtime on-court pick-and-pop partner, Dirk would have to create his own shots and broaden his game. He did - in fact; he had a year that statistically elevated him to the elite, finishing with 26.1 points per game (fourth in the league) and 9.7 rebounds per game. He was, not surprisingly, an All-Star again, getting to reunite with Steve Nash on the same team if only for one night. He was third in the final voting for Most Valuable Player, behind Shaquille O’Neal and the eventual winner...Steve Nash. He ranked fifth in the league in points scored, and third in total efficiency points. Perhaps no game illustrated his "points" potential more than a "gentlemen’s duel" of scorers on December 2, 2004, when Dirk’s 53 points - a career high - outdid Tracy McGrady’s 48 in an overtime duel where the Mavericks outlasted the Houston Rockets. The Mavs would meet those same Rockets in the first round of the playoffs...but not before Don Nelson, the only NBA coach Dirk had ever played under and the man who brought him to America from Germany, abruptly retired, handing the reins over to assistant coach Avery Johnson. Under Johnson’s defense-minded, no-nonsense leadership, the Mavs seemed to thrive, losing only two games in the last month of the season. But things went awry almost immediately in the postseason. Dirk, hampered by a nasty case of bronchitis, did not play up to his usual level, and the Mavs lost the first two games at home. They came back, however, to become the first team to lose the first two at home and continue on to win the series. In a cruel irony only the "sporting gods" are capable of, the next round was against the West’s best, the Phoenix Suns and their MVP. Dirk was used to competing against Steve from many a game of H-O-R-S-E in the past...but this was for a chance at the Western Conference Finals. Perhaps the illness lingered. Perhaps the roleplayers didn’t perform as they should have. There was friction after Dirk accosted or called out teammates publicly. He was heavily upbraided for it in the press - ironic, as those same critics had scolded him previously for being too silent in his leadership style. Whether it was the team’s "low basketball IQ" or the Phoenix Suns’ superiority as a team, the bottom line was the same, and after six games, Dallas’ postseason was over. Even Dirk’s summer was not to run as expected. His mentor and personal coach Holger Geschwindner was jailed on suspicion of tax evasion, making him unavailable for the planned workouts with Dirk and creating intense stress and worry for Dirk himself. Dirk alternately suggested planning training sessions at the correctional facility where Geschwindner was housed, or, with his inimitable wit, suggested taking his former women’s national team member mother out as a rebounding partner. The German national team had a rough go of it in the preparatory games, but once the European Championship (Eurobasket 2005) began in Belgrade, Serbia-and-Montenegro, things started looking up. After a tough overtime loss to Olympic silver medallists Italy, the Germans knuckled down and swept teams like Russia and Turkey aside like JV squads and played their way into the quarterfinals, where they beat a heavily favored Slovenian squad when role players like Mithat Demirel and Pascal Roller provided some welcome assistance. In the semifinals, it was Spain - again, the favorite, even without Pau Gasol. It was a tough and respectable game, with Sven Schultze providing the spark this time. Down by a point with three seconds to go, Dirk sank the winning jumpshot. Was it possible, the team many laughed at when they announced their intentions for a medal had a chance at THE medal? Alas, the Cinderella story fell short - fatigue after two demanding games, 21 turnovers and a seemingly unstoppable Greek team determined that Germany would settle for silver...but silver also shines, and especially brightly as it was far and away more than had been expected from Germany’s determined young heros. Dirk was also named MVP of the tournament and also was honored as top scorer. But perhaps his greatest honor came three and a half minutes before the final buzzer of the last game. Head coach Dirk Bauermann, seeing that the deficit was hopeless, pulled Dirk from the game to avoid further chance of injury. As he left the court, the overwhelmingly Greek crowd gave Dirk a standing ovation. At this writing, Dirk returns to a Mavs team seemingly in constant flux. Gone is Michael Finley, longtime friend and last remnant of The Little Team That Could from 2003. New to the lineup are defensive specialist Doug Christie, big man DeSagana Diop, and rookies Josh Powell and Rawle Marshall. What they accomplish remains, of course, to be seen, but with Dirk’s heart, determination and recent experience, the sky is the limit. Dirk Nowitzki links Dirk Nowitzki website NBA player page
|
