Mavericks’ Nowitzki clarifies remarks on idea of playing with another team

Dirk Nowitzki clarified comments he made on a Dallas radio station Thursday about his future with the Dallas Mavericks.

During an interview on the Ben & Skin Show, Nowitzki apparently left the door open on playing with another team before he retires. But on Friday, Nowitzki, who has one year left on a three-year, $25 million contract he signed with the Mavs in the summer of 2014, said that’s not the case.

“I’ve always said I wanted to play those three years until the end and kind of re-evaluate what my body feels like at the end of those three years,” Nowitzki said. “Saying all that, I’m just waiting how this season goes, but in my mind after we won a championship [in 2011] it was always clear I would retire a Mav.

“But if I’m not mistaken, the question was if we’re going through a rebuilding phase is what they asked me yesterday, and obviously I want to compete, I want to compete at the highest level. I always want to make the playoffs and even more, so if that’s what the Mavs are going to do is rebuild, then we’ll just have to wait and see.”

In other words, Nowitzki bleeds Mavericks blue. This is the only franchise the power forward has played for in his 18-year career, and likely will be the only franchise he’ll ever play for.

“Obviously I still have a year under contract and I’d love to fulfill it,” he said. “I do have the possibility, if I’m correct, to opt out if I can.”

Nowitzki also expounded on the super team LeBron James talked to Bleacher Report about possibly putting together that might include Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and James.

“That would be an incredible team,” Nowitzi said. “If you look at Golden State, look at the [San Antonio] Spurs, all these teams are super teams. Nowadays if you want to win you need multiple stars, you need multiple players, and you need multiple play-makers on the team to win.

“And obviously all the top teams are loaded. They’re loaded off the bench.”

Nowitzki acknowledged that the Mavs have tried to build their own version of a super team in recent years, but struck out.

“I can’t fault what we’ve been trying to last few years — I think we’ve been in every conversation with the big fish every summer,” Nowitzki said. “It started with [Deron Williams] — we were in meetings with Dwight [Howard] and with [Carmelo Anthony].

“How serious those guys were to actually coming, I have no idea. DeAndre [Jordan] basically committed to us [last summer], so we tried, we tried hard, obviously to get this franchise to the next level. It’s just some bad luck. It’s some decisions we can’t change.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ Nowitzki clarifies remarks on idea of playing with another team."