Mark Cuban will re-sign Dirk Nowitzki for as long as the future Hall of Famer and best European ever in the NBA wants to play. He has said as much, and Nowitzki is worth that much to the organization.
Nowitzki said he will pick up his player option and play next season, so long as the Mavs don’t enter full rebuild mode. But would a rejuvenated Nowitzki — who has stopped the decline in his game and had a bounce-back season — play another season, his 20th in the NBA.
Maybe.
From Marc Stein of ESPN.Although he stressed that he wouldn’t make a firm decision until after completing the 2016-17 campaign, Nowitzki said on ESPN Radio’s “NBA Insiders” show that playing an even “20 years would sound really, really great.”
Currently in his 18th season, Nowitzki said, “My goal was when I signed this three-year deal to fulfill that contract. And so if I play next year through, by that point I’ll be 39. To be honest, 20 years [in the NBA] would sound really, really great. And next year would obviously be my 19th year, so maybe after this next year I could sign on one more. But I’ll just have to wait and see, I think, at this point.”
There are a lot of variables in that decision that we will not know until the end of next season — where are the Mavericks in terms of rebuilding, how is Nowitzki’s body holding up, and on down the line.
But he’s thinking about it, because 20 is a nice round number.
