Franchise legend Dirk Nowitzki has been serving as a special advisor to the Mavericks since 2021, when then-owner Mark Cuban brought him back to the only NBA team he had ever played for. Since the Mavs’ sale in 2023, though, Nowitzki has seen his influence diminish as new powers rose in the organization.
Recently, he said that the lack of clarity on his role has caused him to take stock of his place with the team and the league as a whole, according to Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal.
“It felt a little weird… not knowing my role,” Nowitzki said during an appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “So since then, I’ve kind of pulled back again.”
Nowitzki did have a word of advice for the Mavs’ leadership as they look to repair fan trust following the Luka Doncic trade and subsequent drafting of Cooper Flagg with the first overall pick.
“The owner has to show that he’s willing to spend and then make this a great team for the next decade to come,” Nowitzki said. “That’s all there really is to it.”
We have more from the Mavs:
- Nowitzki isn’t the only person who feels his influence slipping with the Mavericks. Cuban recently suggested that his voice no longer felt particularly welcome, as Christian Clark of The Athletic relays. “There were some things that happened internally where the person who traded Luka didn’t want me there,” Cuban said during a panel last weekend, presumably referring to president of basketball operations Nico Harrison. “So, they won. I lost.” Cuban has been on record saying that he believed he would still have some level of decision-making on the basketball side of things even following the team’s sale, but that as the team ascended, he didn’t want to overstep. He now believes that stepping back was a mistake.
- Nowitzki, despite the confusion about his own role, is optimistic about the team moving forward, Afseth writes in a separate article. “I think they did some smart re-signings this summer with [Daniel] Gafford and P.J. [Washington],” he said. “I think they’re deep, they’re doubled on every position… If they’re fully healthy, hopefully by the new year, somewhere in January… they’re a super deep team that can definitely be in the top four in the West.”
- Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News agrees with Nowitzki’s assessment, calling the Southwest “as competitive as any other division in the NBA” while predicting the Mavericks will end up second in the division behind the Rockets, thanks in part to Houston’s acquisition of Kevin Durant.