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Nowitzki – Franchise Player on Both Sides of Atlantic
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Star: Along with his NBA success, Nowitzki has remained loyal to the German National Team over the years. dpa photo |
With Germany hosting the World Cup and with its national team now able
to advance to the second round, you can hardly blame the population for
being fully in the throws of fußball fever. But on this side of
the Atlantic, one German is turning in a strong performance in another
championship series. Dirk Nowitzki is leading the Dallas Mavericks in
a battle with the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. The best-of-seven series
is tied currently at 2-2, with Dallas fans, in the U.S. and Germany, looking
to Nowitzki to bring home his first championship ring. Game Five is set
for Sunday night in Miami.
In Germany, basketball cannot compare to soccer in terms of popularity, but Nowitzki has raised the game’s profile considerably with his meteoric rise in the NBA and especially by making the German National Team a force to be reckoned with in Europe and the world. With Nowitzki, Germany finished a surprising third in the 2002 World Championship in Indianapolis, and Nowitzki was named MVP. In 2005, the 7-footer led the German team to a silver medal in the European Championship, its best finish in the tournament since winning in 1993, and was again named MVP. And while the NBA Finals are the only thing on his mind at the moment, Nowitzki is again on the German roster for the 2006 World Championship in Japan beginning in August.
| Humble: Nowitzki considers himself a team player, not a one-man show. German embassy photo |
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Influence on basketball in Germany
So dominant is the Würzburg native’s influence on the popularity
of the sport in Germany that a national youth basketball training symposium
was titled: “How do we foster the successors to Dirk Nowitzki?”
The German Basketball Federation’s (DBB) homepage banner motif is
made up of images of Nowitzki shooting the ball, defending, etc. In an
interview with wire service PA International before the 2004 European
Championships, DBB Sports Director Wolfgang Brenscheidt said: “We’ve
developed a standardized procedure over the past years. We root for the
Mavs, wait for the season to end and hope Dirk doesn’t get injured.
Then we start working.”
Nowitzki first became a stand-out player in the German and European youth
basketball system and then played for his hometown team, the DJK Würzburg,
helping them advance to the top field of the Bundesliga. In 1998, at age
19, Nowitzki became only the second German player to be drafted into the
NBA (Detlef Schrempf was the first in 1985) when Milwaukee chose him in
the 9th round. Dallas acquired him in an immediate trade, and Nowitzki’s
entire NBA career has been in Texas. He earned his first spot in the NBA
All-Stars in 2002 and has been picked every year since.
From the beginning, Nowitzki has returned to Germany every summer. When
he is not playing with the national team, he is relaxing and training
in Würzburg, often with his private coach and mentor, Holger Geschwindner,
a former top German National player who took Nowitzki under his wing when
Nowitzki was just 16 years old. Geschwindner, says Nowitzki, taught him
about everything, from basketball to life.
By all accounts, Nowitzki is an affable and humble team player, despite
his reported five-year, $80-million contract. “I don’t think
of myself as famous,” Nowitzki said in a 2003 interview with Germany
Info. “I am sometimes surprised how people react.” He is using
his fame for good through his Dirk Nowitzki Foundation, which supports
various programs around the world that provide education, health and well
being for children, a venture he founded after his third seasons in the
NBA.
June 16, 2006
Links
 Wunderkind
in Washington – Germany Info interview with Nowitzki in November
2003
 Nowitzki’s
Player Profile on NBA.com
The
Dirk Nowitzki Foundation
DBB
(German Basketball Federation)
FIBA
(International Basketball Federation)
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