Written by Marc Stein at ESPN.com
The Dallas Mavericks and veteran big man Dirk Nowitzki have hammered out the framework of a new contract that sets Nowitzki up to earn $40 million over the next two seasons and play until age 40, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN that some of the finer contract details are still being worked through, but the broad financial terms have been nailed down in a deal constructed to pay Nowitzki an annual salary in the $20 million range that is more commensurate with his Hall of Fame stature after playing on an ultra-steep discount for the past two seasons.
Before coming to terms with Nowitzki, Dallas rallied from two early disappointments in free agency and used its substantial salary-cap space to make some promising pickups. After being spurned by Hassan Whiteside andMike Conley, Dallas capitalized on the sudden availability of Harrison Barnesand Andrew Bogut in Golden State — in the wake of the Warriors’ success in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes — to agree on a four-year, $94.4 million max deal to sign Barnes and a trade to acquire Bogut.
The second year of Nowitzki’s new deal is likely to be a player option, sources said, which would allow the NBA’s sixth all-time leading scorer to decide whether he wants to keep playing. Nowitzki, who turned 38 on June 19, has said numerous times since Dallas’ season ended with a first-round exit to Oklahoma City that his ideal scenario is playing two more seasons, but he’s also made it clear he wants to re-evaluate things at the end of the 2016-17 season.
Since it emerged in May that Nowitzki would likely decline his $8.7 million player option for next season and return to free agency for the first time since the summer of 2014, it has been widely expected — both in Dallas and leaguewide — that the 7-footer from Germany refused to even consider leaving the Mavericks, who acquired him on draft night in 1998 and have made him the focal point of their franchise ever since.
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