Throughout his storied career, Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki has always come off as a pretty normal, pretty regular guy. So you probably won’t be surprised to learn that he feels like when he retires — whenever that is — the whole thing will be pretty standard. No 82-game long farewell tour a la Kobe Bryant. No press release, period, a la Tim Duncan. Just your average, garden-variety NBA star riding off into the sunset.
Dirk expounded on this a bit in a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News, in which he likened himself more to Duncan than to Kobe, but, you know, not that low key.
“You know, I loved the way Kobe went out … with a 60-point game? That’s so Kobe like. The whole arena was standing up the whole fourth quarter. So much fun to watch. But I’m more like a Duncan guy. More a quiet guy. I don’t need the limelight as much. Maybe not quite the just e-mail, Hey, by the way Tim Duncan is retiring. I thought that was a little low profile. Maybe there’s a little press conference or something. I don’t know, I don’t really want to think about it because I know it’s gonna come up soon anyway. I’m just gonna enjoy the last couple of years.”
Sounds pretty much exactly how you’d expect. Dirk, who signed a two-year, $50 million deal with the Mavs this summer, also touched on the possibility of ever coaching (nope) and, since he’s such an avid tennis fan, who might be the best player in the NBA (he hears David Lee is really good but the best he’s ever seen is former teammate Australian Chris Anstey).
But again, the key here is the retirement talk, which, as he acknowledges, will certainly come up at some point in the not too distant future. No matter how he chooses to go out, we don’t have too much more time to spend with the 38-year-old. So don’t forget to cherish it.
(via NBC Sports)
