Superstar Dirk Nowitzki is struggling with the disappointing season of his Dallas Mavericks:”Of course it’s a lot of fun if you lose so many times,”said the 39-year-old from Würzburg to Basket Magazine. The 2011 champions have a record of 19 victories and 45 defeats in the current season and will miss the NBA playoffs for the second time in a row.
In mid-February, club boss Mark Cuban had already given up all hopes of a playoff appearance and said that his team’s best hope for next summer’s draft is to lose all of the other season’s matches as far as possible. Shortly afterwards, Nowitzki vehemently opposed this strategy.
In addition, Nowitzki again announced that he would not decide on a possible career end until the summer:”I’m going to finish the season now. And then I will join the family and Holger (private trainer and mentor Holger Geschwindner, d. Red.) and listen to my body to see if I can do it again. Whether it’s still fun.” Nowitzkis contract runs until 2019.
It was only on Sunday that Nowitzki had set his personal best performance of the season with 23 points in his defeat against the New Orleans Pelicans and had also beaten the 31,000-point mark beforehand,”I have not yet suspended a game this season. That’s why I expect to play again next season. But the final decision will not be made until the summer,”Nowitzki said.