NBA star Dirk Nowitzki looking forward to a break from basketball
Dallas Mavericks super star Dirk Nowitzki has revealed that he isn’t in any hurry to play basketball right now. The forward has played almost an entire year of basketball. After a long NBA season that went on right up to the Finals,
Nowitzki was involved in the intense FIBA EuroBasket tournament representing Germany.
The NBA is currently in a lockout after the players and NBA owners failed to resolve a labour dispute. The lack of a new CBA means that the season might not start in time and even could be cancelled. In the given circumstance a
number of NBA players have signed contracts with foreign teams while even more are considering doing so.
Dirk has considered the move in the past and is on record, saying he will not sit around for a whole year waiting for the CBA issue to be resolved. However in the recent interview with ESPN, a tired Nowitzki wasn’t thinking about
anything but a rest.
"I'm going to get away for a little bit and get some well-deserved rest that I didn't get before," Nowitzki said, referring to the EuroBasket tournament. Nowitzki joined up with the German Men’s National Basketball team for the
prestigious event despite having just finished a triumphant but exhausting NBA season.
The super star is loved in his country and he put the German team before himself when playing in the tournament and taking the side as far as they went.
Now though, the aging Nowitzki wants some rest. He is looking forward to putting his feet up and enjoying his time off before considering much else.
"That's my plan."
Germany’s failure to secure a top six finish in the tournament means that they will not be in the Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament and subsequently cannot play in the London Olympics 2012. Nowitzki revealed that he will therefore
be taking a break from the German team as well.
There are no important tournaments lined up for Germany on the international scene and Nowitzki thus doesn’t believe his presence is required. He did say that he isn’t retiring from international basketball and might be available
if his country came calling.
"I'm not going to retire (from the national team) and I'm not going to say that I will definitely play (for Germany) again," Nowitzki said Sunday. "I'm going to take a couple years off, then we'll see."
He wasn’t pleased about Germany’s early exit from the tournament and firmly believed his team were better than some other sides that finished ahead of them. However the star forward wasn’t a hundred percent and that played into
Germany’s demise.
"If I’m in decent shape, we would have won another game or two," said Nowitzki. "But I'm not sure we were going to medal."
Tags: