Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki had surgery on his left ankle this morning and will miss the rest of the season, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. The procedure was called minor and has been scheduled for several days.
Nowitzki has played 77 games this NBA season, but started experiencing pain from an ankle impingement on Sunday. He didn’t accompany the team on its current road trip and opted for surgery to fix the problem. The procedure is designed to eliminate inflammation and it should enable him to be fully healthy for next season.
Nowitzki signed a two-year contract last summer and has said repeatedly that he intends to complete it.
“As long as my body feels fine like it has so far, with no setbacks like last year when I missed two months, I’m looking forward to hopefully fulfilling my contract,” he stated in December.
Nowitzki continues to remain productive at age 39, averaging 12.0 points per game and shooting better than 40% from 3-point range, the fourth-best mark in his career. He set a record for the most games by a player in his 20th NBA season.
The Mavericks have a $5MM team option on Nowitzki for next year that they are certain to use if he wants to return.
Somewhere, mark Cuban is inconsolable.
Dirk said he’s coming back next year
And probably the year after that. Why not?