Nowitzki’s retires as one of NBA’s best

From NBA to high school, big German man changes game

Kasey Harvey, Editor-in-chief|April 11, 2019

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Roy Nitzan

After 21 years, Dallas Mavericks basketball player Dirk Nowitzki retired on April 10,2019. “He’s the kind of guy that really made us look at bigs differently,” boys’ head basketball coach Stephen Friar said. “Somebody like him that could shoot the ball from all three levels: the post, the midrange, from the three point line.”

Nobody could have predicted this 21 years ago when a 7’0” and 245 pounds basketball player from Germany was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks. Playing his last game Wednesday, on the road against the rivals San Antonio Spurs, Dirk Nowitzki brought his NBA to an end.

“They always say an athlete dies twice,” Nowitzki said in a Dallas Morning News article. “It’s tough. It’s tough to let something go that you love so much, that you’ve been doing basically your entire life, something that you lived and breathed for basically over 20 years.”

Finishing his career as the NBA’s 6th all-time leading scorer, while leading the Mavericks to the 2011 championship, Nowitzki will be remembered by Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle for the person he is, as much as the basketball player he was.

“I just have never seemed someone of his magnitude as a player do so much for so many and ask for so little in return,” Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle said in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The level of kindness he displays on a consistent basis belies today’s player. It’s something I’m really going to miss.”

Ranked in the top 20 as one of the most influential National Basketball Association players of all time by ESPN, Nowitzki redefined being a well rounded player.

“He’s the kind of guy that really made us look at bigs differently,” boys’ head basketball coach Stephen Friar said. “Somebody like him that could shoot the ball from all three levels: the post, the midrange, from the three point line. Now you look at guys like Kevin Durant and every big player that plays right now that can shoot the ball from the outside and that’s attributed to him. We look at basketball players differently now from the standpoint of can they score from the outside and inside and he’s somebody that was able to do that at a high level.”

For 6’7” junior Micaiah Abi, Nowitzki serves as an inspiration for tall players.

21“Dirk did change the game for big men,” Abi said. “For big men especially, he basically set a foundation for multifaceted athletes so a basketball player, it’s not just doing one job, you can do multiple things on the floor. It doesn’t matter what your position is.”