Dirk Nowitzki isn’t an All-NBA player anymore and, at the age of 39, no one expects him to be. With that said, the future Hall of Fame big man can still play at a high level and he enters yet another season in 2017-2018 as a focal point for the Dallas Mavericks.
Given his age and body type, Nowitzki isn’t exactly fleet of foot at this point in his career and, on Tuesday, he shed a bit of light on a nickname that he has taken a liking to at this juncture. In short, it fits perfectly with the way he currently moves.
I'm so stiff these days that my ex teammate Darrell Armstrong calls me my favorite nickname of all time: "The big mummy"
— Dirk Nowitzki (@swish41) September 12, 2017
Mavs assistant and long-time NBA point guard Darrell Armstrong gets the credit for cementing the moniker but Nowitzki has often been compared to a mummy for the way he moves. Even at his absolute peak, Nowitzki wasn’t a traditionally explosive NBA athlete but the 7-footer now moves in very stiff fashion (his words) and his body remains remarkably upright as he travels around the basketball floor.
During his age-38 season in 2016-2017, Nowitzki still managed to average 14.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in something of a reduced role (26.4 minutes per game) and there is no reason to think he can’t produce similar results again this coming year. It may not be pretty in a traditional sense, but Dirk’s skill set remains tantalizing and he is certainly taking his aging process in stride more than most NBA players ever would in a public setting.
