Written by Anders Rotto at The Sports Quotient
The sun will rise. The grass will grow. And Dirk Nowitzki will continue to score the basketball using his patented step back move.
These are simple facts of life and over the past 17 years, all three have proven to be true.
In an ever-changing league where players, coaches and teams move around at a high rate, Nowitzki has been a consistent presence within the Dallas Mavericks’ organization. Having played in the NBA since the age of 20, how has the 37-year-old Nowitzki been able to maintain his high level of performance and box out Father Time for so long?
After coming to the NBA via Germany as a lanky 20-year-old, Nowitzki took a year to adjust to the much more physical nature of the American league. He averaged only 8.2 points per game that season and shot 40.5 percent from the field, both career lows. Following his rookie year, however, Nowitzki began to come into his own as he developed his unique skill set.
A seven foot player who could shoot so well, handle the ball off the dribble and pass effectively was somewhat of an anomaly at that point in the league’s history, so Nowitzki had few players after which he could model his game. A comparison that many analysts posited early on in his career was Larry Bird, though Bird was slightly shorter. Not only did Nowitzki focus on physically bulking up after his rookie year, he also made major strides in his three-point shooting, improving his percentage from 20.6 to 37.9 percent in his second season.
Nowitzki continued his improvement and averaged 17.5 points per game during his sophomore season and 21.8 points per game during his third year. His shooting percentage, rebounds, steals, and blocks also improved throughout those seasons. Because he could score at will on the offensive end of the court and possessed an incredible array of offensive skills, his underrated defense and rebounding improvements during that time were sometimes overlooked.
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