Photo Credit: AFP

A Letter To Dirk Nowitzki By The Biggest Dirk Fan Outside America And Europe

By Karl Sayson

There probably might not be any more two words out there that are more capable of getting me all hyped up whenever I hear them —

Dirk Nowitzki.

I could honestly not remember how exactly I came to idolize you. But let me just put it this way, my father was a huge 90’s NBA fan, I was only 7 when I started watching games with him on TV and as a kid, the only thing I knew about basketball was the player most physically recognizable, and the player who hits the most shots. This was the best player on the floor to me. It was much easier for me to recognize you because you were that tall, blonde, skinny Maverick who kept on shooting albeit the physique that you have, because back then, it was unusual to have bigs who didn’t post up that much and were even in fact, shooting the ball.

However it seems like the NBA of today has made it a norm for bigs to shoot. No question, you changed the game and I leave that to the experts and the statistics available.

Apart from changing the game, you have also impacted lives — lives that you may have no idea existed. Live from way, way beyond Dallas or Würzburg, or to the farthest side that you could ever imagine. Here we are, the fans you do not know that exist, writing to you to appreciate the exuberance you’ve allowed us to feel for the plain sailing reason that you play basketball. Personally, you’ve made my life more meaningful in the entirety of your NBA tenure.

There is a whole new world of Dirk fandom in the east-side of the world and I want to make sure you know that.

I remember that seven-year old me who used to cut out pictures of you in every magazine he gets hold off. Whenever I felt bad about school or life in general, I just went back to the fact that the Mavericks were going to have a game the next day and that thought alone eased everything.

2006 was a year to forget, I thought. Going up 2-0 in the finals only to lose in 6. The following year was your MVP year but yet the Warriors ‘Believed’ and thumped the first-seeders, yet you kept grinding and then 2011 came.

2011 however was a life-changer — the last genuine championship run in modern-NBA history. I came to understand why 2006 and 2007 and the succeeding first-round heartbreakers had to happen. 2011 would not have been as sweet as it actually was were it not for the previous years’ disappointments. It is in here you taught me patience.

When I find myself troubled, craving for motivation, the answer would simply be “2011 mavs” on YouTube’s search box and thereafter rave about that sweet, sweet “And the Dallas Mavericks…” phrase when the clock finally hit zero in game 6.

Even with all those accolades, I still think you are one of the most underrated players of all-time. It has never been because you were always the silent-type, but because you were humble. Taking paycuts year after year after year when all that you’ve done is to make yourself better and better. Here, you taught me humility.

21 seasons after, you’re still wearing royal blue and immaculate white; through thick and thin; and for that we will be standing with you in whatever road you take in the life after. And this is the part where you taught me loyalty.

You may not know me and you probably may never will, and you may never even get the chance to read this at all, nevertheless I just want to say THANK YOU for everything.

21 seasons after, there isn’t any person out there in the great beyond who is as proud as I am by saying that,

I was a Nowitzness.

-From a fan across the globe, Karl Sayson