Dirk Nowitzki was given a huge amount of respect. The basketball legend has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Before this, no German basketball player had done this. The Würzburg native produced an emotional response in a nearly 15-minute speech. “Two words have been running through my mind for months: Thank you. It’s everything to me,” the German basketball icon said on Saturday night in the US state of Massachusetts.
“My career has been a long journey,” said the German. The ex-basketball professional appeared in a blue suit with a matching blue tie. Nowitzki broke down in tears as he thanked his parents. “I will never forget for the rest of my life what you did for me. And if I can be even half as good a father to you than your parents were to me, I’ll be happy.”
His parents Jörg-Werner and Helga were also there, as well as his wife Jessica Olsson, 44, and their three children Malaika, 10, Max, 8, and Morris, 6. Of course, his former mentor and sponsor, Holger Geschwindner, could not be missing either. The former international made the trip to Springfield to watch his former protégé be honored live.
Dirk Nowitzki is an NBA legend and is regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. From 1998 to 2019, he played for the Dallas Mavericks in the best basketball league in the world. In the 2006/2007 season, Nowitzki was the first European to be awarded the title of “Most Valuable Player in the Main Round”. In 2011, he won a championship with Dallas and was recognized as the playoff MVP. To date, the Würzburg player is the best non-American with 31,560 points. Only legends Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James have more points.
