Dirk Nowitzki not looking to rush his return to action after knee surgery – NBA News
The Dallas Mavericks veteran franchise player and 11 time NBA All Star Dirk Nowitzki has said that he is hoping to return to the court as soon as possible, but will not rush or hurry his return and take the risk of complicating his knee injury.
Nowitzki underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee for the first time in his career on Friday, and is expected to be sidelined for the next three to six weeks. The German giant, who has never missed more than nine games in a single season over his illustrious 14 year career in the NBA, says that he wants to be cautious about his return this time around.
“I need plenty of practices, so it's going to be a few weeks. But is it going to be three, four, five, six? I have no idea,” said Nowitzki.
Nowitzki started feeling swelling and soreness on his knee during the Dallas Mavericks European tour in the preseason that saw them play exhibition games in Nowitzki’s home country of Germany and Spain. However, the forward suffered a sprain on the same knee two seasons ago, but hurried his return as the Mavericks went 2-7 in his absence. He guided the team to an NBA championship that season, but has been having on and off troubles with his knee ever since. He started last season poorly and took a few days off in January to work on his conditioning and physical fitness.
Nowitzki refuses to put any timetable on a possible return to action, but doctors and coaching staff within the Mavericks organization are hoping that he will return to action after three to four weeks.
“It stinks. There's no other way to put it. But we're just going to have to do it, and before I come back, I'm going to do a bunch of practices. It's not like two years ago when I had one practice and came back. This year, we're going to make sure I'm ready to go,” added Nowitzki.
The Dallas Mavericks had a poor offseason this year, in which they failed to land Deron Williams in free agency and then picked up a couple of players on one year contracts to keep cap space for next year’s free agency. After losing Jason Terry and Jason Kidd in the offseason, the Mavericks will be heavily reliant on Nowitzki to guide the team to a respectable finish this season amidst strong competition in the Western Conference.
Tags: