Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki comments on player empowerment and the current state of the NBA
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The NBA today is a pretty weird place.
Players can shapeshift from being slim to fat, to slim again just to make a trade happen. Some, can simply just choose not to play when they don’t like the organization they’re playing with. And then of course, and some would say ‘thankfully’, there are those that go about their business with dignity, simply asking the team for a trade, and then playing relentlessly, until they get what they want.
But, before the time of James Harden, before the time of Ben Simmons, and before the time of LeBron James, players were known to stick with the franchise that drafted them, for better or for worse.
To be honest here, the concept of loyalty to the team was unjustifiably glorified, even though the team themselves still continued to run themselves like a business with no emotion. Simply put, they traded their players, no matter what, whenever they felt like it.
Still, it seems that that is an ideology Mavericks legend, Dirk Nowitzki seems to side with, and even spoke out on the same very recently.
Let’s get into it, shall we?
Dirk Nowitzki says that he does not judge the current age players for their mentality, but can’t help but side with his own era on loyalty
Dirk Nowitzki was drafted in the 1998 NBA draft and would go to the Dallas Mavericks. He then went on to play a mammoth 21 seasons in the NBA and even won a ring as the undisputed first option on the team.
Given that he spent all his time in the NBA with just one team, we’d say that he has perhaps the most informed opinion on the matter of loyalty. And when he was asked about it on SI’s Crossover podcast, here is what he had to say.
“It’s definitely new… We always felt like we the players didn’t have enough power at the beginning of my career (in 1998), and the owners had all the power, could make all the moves. And now it’s almost shifting like a little bit too much. I think there should be like a happy medium. But now the players forcing themselves out, to me is not the way to go, either.”
The NBA champion further continued.
“I was old school… I don’t want to sit here and judge these guys that are doing that. I think everybody has to know what’s best for themselves, for their career, for their brand—you know, everybody has a brand now— and what’s best for their family. For me, it was staying in Dallas. It worked out great there. And I’ve had my family there and I loved it and I grew into that community. So that’s something that just worked for me. But of course, I get it. It’s not for everybody.
At the end of my career, I could have maybe tried somewhere else to get that ring,” Nowitzki said. “I think that would have been really the only reason for me to leave. But for me, Dallas was the place. The people have supported me from the beginning, even when things weren’t going right for me in my first year.”
Now we may not agree with Dirk here. But, we still respect the man greatly for putting his opinion forth so nicely and politely.
It may be basic etiquette, but it for damn sure is A LOT more than what we can say for… certain other elderly gentlemen.
