'We weren't soft, we were skilled': Nowitzki on NBA's European revolution
Standing out: Former Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki at the NBA game in Berlin in January (Odd ANDERSEN) As he is inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame, Dallas Mavericks and German basketball legend Dirk Nowitzki is typically humble in downplaying his role in changing the game. Arriving in the NBA when European players were often derided as soft, the 2. 13-metre (7ft) Nowitzki and the Gasol brothers Pau and Marc not only helped change perceptions; they created an enduring shift in the sport itself.
Nowitzki's legacy is that the skilful European big man who can shoot is no longer a novelty, but very much the incarnation of the modern player. Already towering over adults while coming through the junior ranks, Nowitzki's long-time coach and mentor Holger Geschwindner told the skinny teenager to focus on fundamental skills rather than bulking up. "I met Holger, who taught me about shooting and moving on the court.
I thought I could shoot a little bit but when we started, he was like 'You're doing everything wrong'," Nowitzki told AFP in Berlin. "We started from scratch, from zero, like I'd never shot before. " Nowitzki's iconic one-legged fadeaway, the unguardable move sprinkled through his highlights reels, came directly from those early coaching sessions.
- 'We were skilled' - Drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1998, Nowitzki was traded immediately to the Dallas Mavericks, where he spent his entire 21-year career. While the groundwork had been laid by European big men like Serbia's Vlade Divac and fellow German Detlef Schrempf, negative stereotypes still lingered. "When we came over there late '90s, we were tall and we were shooting the ball.
That was perceived as soft, but we were skilled. " Nowitzki admits the mid-2000s rule changes designed to improve the flow of the game also helped, including the five-second rule, which restricted solo plays. "If I got Charles Barkley and I give him 10 seconds to dribble, I couldn't hold him up.