Former Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki has earned plenty of well-deserved praise as he nears his Hall of Fame induction, which will take place on Saturday. Soccer star Toni Kroos believes his fellow countryman is the greatest German athlete in history, according to Marc Stein at Substack, who also writes a long list of his memories after covering Nowitzki’s career over the past 25 years.
“For me,” said the Real Madrid midfield ace, “Dirk is above anybody.”
As Stein observes, Germany has had a number of incredible athletes, including former tennis stars Steffi Graf and Boris Becker, ex-Formula One driver Michael Schumacher, former soccer player Franz Beckenbauer, and Kroos himself. Yet Nowitzki stands alone for Kroos, not only for his accomplishments on the court, but for the way he carried himself off it.
“At this point we don’t need to talk about his quality as a basketball player,” Kroos told Stein. “To be on this level for so many years, to achieve what he achieved and to make the money he made throughout his career and then to stay the same down-to-Earth guy is what really matters. My feeling is that, little by little, we are losing these Dirk Nowitzkis and Roger Federers. We need more Dirks in this world.”
Tim Cato of The Athletic passes along his own memories of Nowitzki’s career, as well as excerpts from fellow writers touching on the big man’s impact on Dallas and the people around him.
Here are more notes ahead of tomorrow’s enshrinement:
- Pau Gasol is among the star-studded class that will be inducted. He recently gave an exclusive interview to Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times that covered a number of topics, including his time with the Lakers, his relationship with Kobe Bryant, and what being a Hall-of-Famer means to him.
- At a news conference on Friday, the Spanish big man touched on how special it was to be inducted with fellow Europeans Nowitzki and Tony Parker (France). “This class is an incredible accomplishment for European basketball and for international basketball as well,” Gasol said, per Eurohoops.net. “The game has grown so much since we first started playing in the NBA. We can be very proud of having taken the international game to a higher level and very proud of seeing how current players are taking it to the next level. It’s very special to share this moment with Dirk and Tony. It’s remarkable, something that was unthinkable not too long ago. It’s beautiful to share the message that things are possible, things do change and improve, things are exciting, and allow any kid, boy or girl, to dream that they can do it too. That’s the exciting part for me.”
- Parker will be the first Frenchman inducted into the Hall of Fame, and he’ll be joined by several people connected to the Spurs, including his former teammate Gasol, his ex-head coach Gregg Popovich, and former assistant coach Becky Hammon. That was one of the topics he discussed in a lengthy interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “That’s crazy,” Parker said. “I don’t even know if it happened in the history of the Hall of Fame that the player is going the same year as his coach. It’s pretty cool. And the whole process is pretty cool because Pau, I played against him since I’m 14 years old and played together at the Spurs. Dirk, a huge Texas rivalry and I went to his jersey retirement. Becky Hammon, people don’t know that a lot, but she’s like my big sister. We [are] very, very close friends. And we were in San Antonio together and spent a lot of time together. Coach Pop was my coach. There’s a lot of connections in that class that makes it very special for me.” Parker also recently sat down for an exclusive interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews (YouTube link).
- On Friday, Popovich said Parker’s first workout with the Spurs went so poorly the team almost didn’t draft him, but the guard’s agent convinced San Antonio to give him another shot, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “I hated him,” Popovich said. “I said I don’t want him. He’s a weenie. He’s unaggressive. He doesn’t like contact, he’s 19, and I don’t want to see him.” However, Parker “kicked ass” at his second workout. “The rest,” Popovich said, “is history.”
- Ahead of his enshrinement, Heat legend Dwyane Wade answered 16 questions posed by Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, and discussed his post-NBA success with Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
More expandable drivel from Toni Kroos.
Dirk was great. However, he’s far from being Germany’s GOAT. As one of the world’s most successful sports nations, Germany has produced many athletes that stand above Dirk, from racers like Michael Schumacher, footballers like Franz Beckenbauer or Lothar Matthäus up to myriads of Olympians like Francesco Friedrich, Wolfgang Hoppe, André Lange and the list goes on.
You spelled “soccer” wrong and left out “floppier than James Harden in the fourth during an earthquake while on stilts”. Soccer players only talents are turning a tap on the shoulder into a shotgun wound through the thigh, through I M A G I N A T I O N
Atta boy. You tell that grown man his opinion is wrong…!
Schumacher was pretty darn dominant. Beckenbauer was one of the games absolute elite players and rarely gets mentioned these days and Graf and Becker were also dominant for a long stretch at the top of the tennis world. But it’s really hard to compare apples and oranges over eras and everyone will see things a bit differently from the person next to them. Dirk was great and you could make a case he’s top 5 from Germany all time but he’s certainly top 10.
My question is……is Becky Hammon really going into the Hall of Fame? I know this isn’t going to be a popular take but I just can’t get with all these women getting inducted into men’s professional sports leagues halls as token acknowledgements for their contributions.
Where has the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fane ever been referred to as men only? It’s basketball, Air Bud could get inducted
Women have been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame since 1985. Congrats on your 38 year old hot take.
It’s not a hot take, it’s an opinion. Has been and won’t change. Doesn’t matter how long Hall of Fames have been letting women in….I don’t believe any of the NHL, NBA, MLB or NFL have ever inducted a woman who deserves to be in.
Ahh got it. You’re just literally ignorant and don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me help you learn.
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is not exclusive to the NBA. That’s why women, college players, international players, etc. have all been inducted. So anyone who has made significant contribution to the game of basketball (in all areas of the sport) are available for induction.
Happy to help you learn something new today!
Well yoy haven’t taught me anything actually. All you’ve done is state the already well known and obvious. What you haven’t done is lay out a well worded argument or any counter points to my belief.
You offer nothing debatable at all and I still do not believe any woman belongs in any of the four big four hall of fames. Women’s basketball is so inferior to men’s that it’s an absolute joke that there is even a ladies professional league. Not enough people care about women’s basketball or their contributions to the sport for them to deserve to be in the HOF. They get in because of liberal politics and that’s it.
Apologies. Between the poor spelling/grammar, factual inaccuracies, and boilerplate misogyny, it’s a bit hard to discern what you do or don’t know. In your first post, you say that the HOF is a for “men’s professional sports leagues” (factually not true) and in your second, you imply the NBA itself is inducting people into the HOF (also not true). I’m sure someone as smart as you can see how I could be mistaken.
It’s actually laughably simple to explain why woman are in the HOF. Let’s use Gene Keady, a member of the 2023 class, to help illustrate. I’d be willing to bet Thanasis Antetokounmpo would absolutely cook Gene Keady on the basketball court at any stage of Gene’s life. Thanasis isn’t regarded as a HOF worthy player by any metric so why is Keady being inducted? By your logic, his skill set is “an absolute joke” compared to the other players in the HOF. Well, he was chosen because his HOF credentials aren’t being held up against other NBA basketball players, either current or historical. His accomplishments and candidacy were compared to other college coaches, a.k.a. his peers, and thus he was determined to be a HOFer.
In that same respect, female basketball players’ HOF credentials are not being assessed next to male basketball players. They are being judged on how they performed vs. their peers. Same goes for every other player, coach, referee, contributor, or team. I’m not going to pretend to watch the WNBA or think they are skill-for-skill on par with NBA. But that’s completely irrelevant to what the HOF is. College ball is well below the pro level, yet I don’t see you making the argument for their exclusion. I wonder why…
As for the liberal politics….LOL! As I previously mentioned, women started being inducted into the HOF in 1985, right near the beginning of Reagan’s second term as President. Liberal mania runnin’ wild, brother!
Anyways, I’m done with this silly conversation. I’ve wasted enough time on what is clearly some women-hating 14-year-old (either literally or emotionally). Thanks for the laughs goofball.
Go beat your doll lol …….
This is a big statement for international Basketball. Three Great players. All very deserving. I Like this yrs class a lot.
Congratulations !!!!
GOTCHA!!! I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.
Dude I haven’t got time to read your ramblings but good to know I wasted a half hour or so of your day. lmfao