Dirk Nowitzki shows his wife and three children on the big stage

Created: 01/07/2022, 05:32 AM

From: Andreas Knobloch

An emotional night for Dirk Nowitzki with his family: his shirt number was drawn on the ceiling in Dallas.

Dallas - Germany's best basketball player of all time received the highest club award.

Dirk Nowitzki joins the great legends in the NBA.

His shirt number is no longer assigned in Dallas from now on.

He celebrated the memorable evening with family and children.

Germany's basketball icon Dirk Nowitzki was honored for his unique career with the Dallas Mavericks on an emotional night. In a solemn ceremony, the Mavs pulled a white jersey with Nowitzki's number 41 under the ceiling of the hall. Nowitzki had shaped the Mavericks in its 21-year era.

In his roughly 20-minute acceptance speech, he mainly addressed emotional words to his family.

"Jess, you are the backbone of the family. I love you! You are the best mother, you are the best wife!" Said Nowitzki, who thanked the Mavericks fans with tears in his eyes.

"I almost made it without getting emotional," he said at the end.

Together with his wife Jessica and the children Malaika, Max and Morris, the 43-year-old then pressed his head to pull the jersey under the covers.

Dirk Nowitzki and his family received a great honor at the Airlines Center in Dallas

Dirk Nowitzki with his wife Jessica and the children Malaika, Max and Morris.

© Glenn James / NBAE / Getty Images / Getty Images via AFP

In the Mavericks, for which Nowitzki played 21 years in the NBA professional league and which he had led to the only championship title to date in 2011, this honor was previously only granted to Brad Davis (10), Rolando Blackman (22) and Derek Harper (12) in Dallas become.

Because of his sporting merits, a street in Dallas has already been named after Nowitzki.

The longtime international will also receive a statue in front of the American Airlines Center, which was unveiled in miniature form at the ceremony.

Dirk Nowitzki: Number is no longer assigned

Nowitzki's number is no longer to be assigned in the future. The honor under the motto "41 Forever" took place after the victory of the Mavericks against the Golden State Warriors (99:82) in the North American professional league NBA. In addition to league boss Adam Silver, club owner Mark Cuban and several teammates from the 2011 championship team also came.

The 14-time all star leads the statistics of the franchise in terms of points, games, starts, minutes played, rebounds, 3-point throws, free throws and blocks and, with 31,560 points, is the best foreigner in sixth place in the all-time list of the best in the elite league.

Today Nowitzki is the club's advisor and is following developments under his successor Luka Doncic, with whom he played one more season and gets along very well.