Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks are currently in last place at the Western Conference (7-17). In an interview with DAZN and SPOX, the 39-year-old explained how he still remains positive and talks about his training and nutrition. Moreover, what defeats still haunt him today.
SPOX/DAZN: Mr. Nowitzki, would you say that the current situation can be described as radical change? Especially with Rookie Dennis Smith there is now a point guard who has completely different strengths to Deron Williams last season.
Dirk Nowitzki: Yes, we’ve already tried to make the game a little faster about Dennis, because he’s so explosive and extremely fast-breaking. But I have to say that it hasn’t worked so well so far, maybe we don’t have the team for that either. Finally we tried to control the tempo a little bit more or take it out and do our stuff in the half field, especially about Harrison[Barnes]. We just have to find a middle way now.
SPOX/DAZN: Whenever a point guard runs a pick’ n’ pop with you, two mismatches occur. In the last year the duel between you and your little opponent was always sought, currently it looks more like Smith is being deliberately staged. Is this a difficult change?
Nowitzki: No, we want Dennis to attack. With his speed and athleticism, there is almost no Big Man who can stay in front of him when he pulls to the basket. That’s why this is a good option. But we take turns, sometimes I go to the post office to take advantage of the mismatch. The best thing to do is to use several options. Let’s see how far we can go this season. But Dennis will only get better anyway, especially from the overview. We will have a lot of fun with him in the next few years.
SPOX/DAZN: You’ve always emphasized recently that you’ve been playing for as long as you like – now Dallas is in a difficult situation. How’s the fun coming?
Nowitzki: There were now of course many defeats, so it’s harder to have fun. But I’m still trying to enjoy everything. Also in training, I play a lot of one-on-one and try to work on moves that I need in the game. I’m still strengthening my legs. And I always enjoy shooting anyway. So, as I said before, I keep trying to enjoy everything and stay positive. We still have a lot of seasonal games ahead of us, you can’t just hang your head over it now. Of course, they were now disappointed and frustrated here and there, but I hope that we can fight our way out of it. Then we can still surprise some teams.
SPOX/DAZN: How important is your personal role, especially with regard to the many young players in the squad?
Nowitzki: I’m just trying to be positive every day. I come to the training early to stretch, I stay longer and then throw a little more, just to show everyone that we have to somehow get out of the hole. It won’t work with waiting and drinking tea.
SPOX/DAZN: What is your current training routine?
Nowitzki: We do strength training at least twice a week, whereby everyone can see individually what they need. For example, I am more concerned with promoting explosiveness. With 40 I will not squat 500 kilos now, it’s more about building suspense before games, stretching me, or running exercises. As I said, it’s about explosiveness, because that’s usually the first thing you lose in old age. Not the power, but rather the liveliness and elasticity.
SPOX/DAZN: That’s what you do yoga for, right?
Nowitzki: Exactly, that’s what we do now two or three times a week, usually in the morning on the day of the match. It is optional, but usually five or six people are involved. I’m in, so are Harrison[Barnes], Wesley[Matthews] and Dennis.
SPOX/DAZN: Actually, yoga is not necessarily associated with basketball. How did you find out about this?
Nowitzki: That was in 2008, when we travelled to the Olympic Games. Chris Kaman had his yoga guy from Los Angeles with him. I just thought,”What are you doing there?” And then I went through the practice and felt really great. Then we went along with the whole team and I kind of stuck around. I think that right now, at my age, you have to find a good mix of stretching, strength exercises and so on. One loses elasticity in the muscles and sometimes gets a little stiff in the game, you can achieve something with a lot of stretching and yoga.
Page 1: Nowitzki about the start of the season and his training routine
Page 2: Nowitzki on nutrition and its bitterest defeat