Basketball superstar Dirk Nowitzki was expected to call it quits on a brilliant career in the NBA after 20 seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. But instead the German announced Tuesday — while attending the Mavs’ last season game against the Phoenix Suns — that he aimed to return next season and fulfil his contract until 2019. 
“The plan is to come back and work toward next season,” Nowitzki told reporters. “It’s going to be a long process, it’s going to be a summer with some frustrations here and there... but I’m willing to fight through it and give it another shot,” he added. 
If he succeeds Nowitzki, who turns 40 in June, would be the first NBA player with 21 years at the same club, another milestone in the glittering career of the former German international. The 2.13-metre-tall power forward is considered the best European ever to play in the NBA. 
With 31,187 points he is in sixth place on the all-time scorer list and the only non-American in the top 10. In 2007, he was voted the best player in the strongest league in the world, and the desired NBA title finally came in 2011. 
The 13-time NBA Allstar would have loved to have returned to the play-offs this year, but the Texans were among the worst teams in the league, as they had been the previous season. In addition, Nowitzki was out of action at the end of the season after an operation on his left ankle. 
After the title win seven years ago, it went steadily downhill for the team, and the dream of a second championship for Nowitzki remains unfulfilled. 
Although Nowitzki was an important part of the team and the emotional leader until recently, the ageing captain was no longer as dominating as he was 10 years ago, but at the same time he remained loyal to the club. 
And he still wants to help the team regroup, saying: “The last couple of years have been tough, so hopefully I can help the team push through those times.” 
Nowitzki was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks as ninth in the 1998 draft and then transferred to Dallas. There, the former Wuerzburg Bundesliga player experienced great moments of glory but also disappointment with the 2006 NBA finals defeat to Miami. 
Nowitzki’s childhood dream eventually came true five years later with revenge against the Heat. Playing for the national team, Germany’s 2011 sports personality of the year took bronze at the 2002 world championships in the United States and silver three years later at the European Championships in Serbia. 
He retired from the German national team in early 2016 after 153 international matches. Despite the heavy load of the NBA Nowitzki played repeatedly for Germany, in contrast to many other international stars of his calibre. 
Nowitzki would have had every excuse to have more time to spend with his wife, Jessica, and their three children, Malaika, Max and Morris, instead of planning to continue. Financially he has long since taken care of himself and his family, collecting a total of about 199.5mn euros ($245mn) in salary at Dallas alone. It could have been much more, but by staying loyal to his Mavs, Nowitzki renounced much higher sums, and in his last season earned the relatively smaller amount of about $5mn. Other stars of his status have picked more than four times that figure.




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