height_ft nationality birth_date career_start years profile draft_year team draft_pick number image name caption weight_lb birth_place draft_team position draft_round letter league height_in bbr article_title
7 german 19 june 1978 1994 1994 -- 1998 1998 start -- present dirk_nowitzki 1998 dallas mavericks djk würzburg -lrb- germany -rrb- dallas mavericks 9 41 dirknowitzki.jpg dirk nowitzki nowitzki october 9 , 2009 shooting a free-throw against the washington wizards on 245 würzburg , west germany milwaukee bucks power forward 1 n nba 0 nowitdi01 dirk nowitzki

dirk nowitzki

dirk werner nowitzki -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- born june 19 , 1978 -rrb- is a german professional basketball player who currently plays for the dallas mavericks of the national basketball association -lrb- nba -rrb- .
an alumnus of röntgen gymnasium and the djk würzburg basketball club , nowitzki was chosen as the ninth pick in the 1998 nba draft by the milwaukee bucks and immediately traded to the mavericks , where he has played since .
listed at , nowitzki is considered one of the greatest power forwards in basketball history .
nowitzki led the mavericks to 14 nba playoffs -lrb- 2001 -- 2012 ; 2014 -- 2015 -rrb- , including the franchise 's first finals appearance in 2006 and only championship in 2011 .
he is a 13-time all-star , a 12-time all-nba team member , and the first european player to start in an all-star game as well as the first to receive the nba most valuable player award -lrb- 2007 -rrb- .
nowitzki is the highest-scoring foreign-born player in nba-history , currently being ranked 7th in all-time scoring with +28,000 regular-season points .
he is also one of six players who achieved a 50-40-90 season -lrb- 2007 -rrb- .
he is the first maverick voted onto an all-nba team and holds several all-time mavericks franchise records .
kareem abdul-jabbar and nowitzki are the only players to achieve four consecutive 30-point , 15-rebound post-season games -lrb- 2001 -- 2002 -rrb- .
nowitzki led the german national basketball team to a bronze medal in the 2002 fiba world championship and silver in eurobasket 2005 , and was the leading scorer and mvp in both tournaments .
he was named the euroscar european basketball player of the year by the italian sports newspaper `` gazzetta dello sport '' for five years running from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2011 .
he was also named the mister europa european player of the year by the italian sports magazine `` superbasket '' in 2005 , and the fiba europe basketball player of the year twice in 2005 and 2011 .
he was named eurobasket 's all-europeans player of the year from 2005 to 2008 , and again in 2011 .
on december 18 , 2011 , nowitzki was named the 2011 german sports personality of the year , the first basketball player to receive the award .
on december 10 , 2012 , he became the first non-american player to receive the naismith legacy award .
