Dirk Werner Nowitzki, born June 19, 1978 is a  professional basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Assosiaction. Nowitzki was drafted ninth overall by the Millwauke Bucks in the 1998, and was immediately traded to the Mavericks, where he has played ever since. Standing at 7 ft 0 in, Nowitzki plays the power forward position, but is also capable of playing the frontcourt positions like center or  small forward.

     Nowitzki is a seven-time NBA All-Star and eight-time member of the All-NBA Teams, and is the first European-born player in NBA history to receive the NBA most vakuable player award. He is the first Maverick ever to be voted into an All-NBA Team and also holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records. He led the German national basketball team to a bronze medal in the 2001 FIBA Tournament and the silver medal in Euro Basket 2005, and was leading scorer and elected Most Valuable Player in both tournaments. Regarded as one of the best European players in basketball history, Nowitzki was named "European Basketball Player of the Year" by Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport for five years in a row.

Early Years

    Born in Wurzburg, West Germany, Dirk Werner Nowitzki comes from an athletic family: his mother Helga was a professional basketball player and his father Jorg-Werner was a handball player who represented Germany at the highest international level. His older sister Silke, a local champion in track and field, also became a basketball player and now works for the NBA in International TV. Nowitzki Jr. was a very tall child, most of the time hetowered his peers by a foot and more. He initially played handball and tennis, but soon grew tired of being called a "freak" for his height and eventually turned to basketball. After joining the local DJK Wurzburg, the 15-year-old attracted the attention of former German international basketball player Holger Geschwindner, who spotted his talent immediately and offered to coach him individually two to three times per week. After getting both the approval of Nowitzki and his parents, Geschwindner put his pupil through an unorthodox training scheme, he emphasized shooting and passing exercises, and shunned weight training and tactical drills, because he felt it was "unnecessary friction". Furthermore, Geschwindner encouraged Nowitzki to play a musical instrument and read literature to make him a more complete personality.

     After a year, the coach was so impressed that he said to his pupil, "You must now decide whether you want to play against the best in the world or just stay a local hero in Germany. If you choose later, we will stop training immediately, because nobody can prevent that anymore. But if you want to play against the best, we have to train on a daily basis." After pondering for two days, Nowitzki decided to let Geschwindner train him seven days a week with DJK Würzburg players and future German internationals Robert Garrett, Marvin Willoughby and Demond Greene, and in the summer of 1994, the 16-year-old Nowitzki made the DJK squad.

What's Next?

  When Dirk was first drafted to the NBA in 1998 he went to the Millwauke Bucks and didnt even play a full season there. He was then traded to the Dallas Mavericks and now is holding his part of the team very well. He is avriging 22.4 points a game with 8.6 rebounds and 1 block a game.