Yesterday the City of Dallas held a ceremony to rename the former 2900-3000 block of Olive Street south of the American Airlines Center, “Nowitzki Way” in honor of the Big German.
The ceremony was attended by hundreds of Mavs fans and all three of Dirk’s former coaches, Don Nelson, Avery Johnson and Coach Rick Carlisle, who brought along a reminder of the greatest highlight for Dirk and the Mavericks which was the “champagne-soaked” suit that had been in his closet since June 12, 2011, when Dallas won its title.
“I felt some day there would be an appropriate time to wear this again,” Carlisle said. “This is a beautiful day.”
Dirk came to America at just 20 years old and spent 21 seasons with the Mavericks, retiring just last year. The 14-time All-Star and 2007 NBA MVP is easily the greatest player in Mavs history and is the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history.
I don’t think there’s a single person in Dallas who does not love this move by the Mavs and the city of Dallas. A lot of players have come and gone over the last 20 years in Dallas, but you could always count on Dirk to be there and put up a 30 point, 14 rebound stat line just about every night.
A simple retirement of his jersey would just not have been enough. He deserved a street name and he got it.
“It’s sort of surreal. From my first year, the city probably wouldn’t have named a dumpster after me. It’s a little bit bigger than basketball,” Nowitzki said, choking up. “This is about my relationship with the city. There was a lot of love that I’ve received from this community.”
One thing I love about Dirk and his time with the Mavericks is he truly made Dallas his home. At this point, he’s lived in Dallas longer than he lived in Germany. Which is probably why after retiring he has decided to stay in put in Dallas and purchase this this 11,394-square-foot, $8.25 million mansion in Preston Hollow, previously owned by the late Dallas billionaire Charles Wyly.
The four-bedroom house was built in 1937 and has five living areas, nine bathrooms, a commercial-size kitchen, an elevator, an indoor lap pool, an outdoor swimming pool, pool house, tennis court, guest quarters, a five-car garage and sits on more than 2.5 acres just off Preston Road.
Bottom line, it’s big enough for the 7 foot German:
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