Dirk Nowitzki ’s path to the NBA is nothing less than exceptional. Even though the German power forward joined the 1998 NBA Draft, he wasn’t sure if he’d play in the league right away or sign a contract in Europe.
Regarding that fork in the road, Nowitzki said the Dallas Mavericks did everything in their power for the sweet-shooting Hall-of-Famer to choose the NBA. The 2007 NBA MVP narrated this interesting development early in his career on Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s Thanalysis podcast .
“I never committed that I was actually going to the NBA, so it was a very high risk for teams to take me as a lottery pick,” Nowitzki remarked. “And so I didn’t think that I wasn’t gonna get drafted very high. And then I got a call that night that Milwaukee drafted you and traded you to Dallas. Crazy, right?”
“And surely, one or two days later, Don Nelson, who was the coach at the time, showed up in my hometown of Wurzburg. And he’s like, ‘Hey, we want you, we need you.’ And so, (he) flew me back to Dallas, and I met Steve Nash, met Michael Finley, met some of the guys that were there, and I loved it, and I said, ‘OK,'” explained the 2011 Finals MVP.
Nowitzki said it was “dicey” for a minute, but the Mavericks’ ploy worked. After all, people appreciate others who go the extra mile for them. In Dirk’s case, the Mavs literally flew over 5,000 miles to get their guy. The rest, as they say, is history.
Almost a Buck?
The Bucks drafted Nowitzki, but there was no conceivable scenario where he’d remain in Wisconsin. According to former Bucks GM Larry Harris, Milwaukee had no intention of selecting the young German. What happened was that the team wanted to make sure they got Robert “Tractor” Traylor to address their frontcourt issues and orchestrated a deal beforehand with Dallas.
"People come up to me and say, 'You had Nowitzki. Why did you trade him?’ We really never had him," Harris said in a 2011 interview . "The deal was done well before the draft started. Had the deal not been done, they (the Mavericks) would have chosen him (Dirk Nowitzki)."
Therefore, the Mavericks selected Traylor at six, while the Bucks selected Nowitzki at number nine. The franchises swapped their picks, along with other players, to make the deal work.
Unfortunately for the Bucks, the wheeling and dealing did not pay off. “Tractor” never realized his full potential primarily because of weight issues, while Nowitzki became a perennial All-Star and one of the highest-scoring forwards ever.
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Mark Cuban’s Loyalty to Dirk
After jumping through hoops to convince Nowitzki to play in Dallas, the team had a chance to flip Dirk for Shaquille O’Neal in 2004. The Los Angeles Lakers were shopping the Big Diesel around the league and were briefly talking to the Mavs about a potential swap. Shaq was still close to his prime back then and Nowitzki’s face-up style was viewed as “soft” in an era of brutes. However, owner Mark Cuban halted the talks when the Purple and Gold wanted #41.
After this botched trade, Nowitzki’s career reached new heights. He made the All-NBA First team in 2005, made the NBA Finals in 2006, and won the NBA MVP in 2007. It took four more years for Dirk to secure a title, but as they say, good things come to those who wait.
The 14-time NBA All-Star is far and away the franchise leader in points, rebounds, blocks, and field goals made. A guy named Luka Doncic may surpass many of these accomplishments down the road, but as of now, the German Bomber is still “that guy” for many Mavericks fans.
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