NBA

Dirk Nowitzki walks by the longtime coach before the first NBA regular season game in Germany.

ballervisions 2026年1月16日

When Dirk Nowitzki started playing basketball in Germany, he was a member of DJK Würzburg, a team in the second division of Germany, after the Bundesliga. It was there that his longtime coach, Holger Geschwindner, first noticed him.

“First thing [I noticed] you had no technical skills,” Geschwindner joked after being asked by Nowitzki in a video segment with Amazon Prime, prompting the Mavericks legend to laugh as the two joked.

Nowitzki went on to become one of the greatest players in NBA history, winning the league MVP in 2007, the NBA champion in 2011, and scoring over 31,000 points in his career, good for sixth on the all-time leader board. He retired after 21 seasons with the Dallas Mavericks in 2019 and took a job with the NBA’s new Amazon Prime team last year.

That work led him to this game, Thursday’s game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic, in Berlin, Germany. It is the first regular season game in NBA history to be played in Germany following numerous preseason and exhibition games over the years.

Amazon Prime is covering the game and sent Nowitzki to Germany to cover the game and take a trip down memory lane with his longtime friend and coach. Nowitzki and Geschwindner shared memories of their first coaching sessions as they toured the courts in Germany. Nowitzki recalled that he had trouble shooting when he first practiced with Geschwindner.

“First of all, football must be your friend,” said his coach. “Shooting only on the fingers, which is very sensitive, and puts pressure on the end.”

Nowitzki told stories of the two sleeping on mattresses in the gym. Geschwindner said players often dream of NBA careers and 5-star hotels without doing the work first, so he wanted Nowitzki to start from scratch and work toward that level of success.

They discussed the 1998 Nike Hoop Conference where many NBA and college scouts saw Nowitzki in person for the first time.

“The hoop summit completely changed our lives,” Nowitzki said.

The 7-footer played well in an exhibition game and was selected 9th overall in the NBA Draft later that year, but struggled in his first season — a 50-game, lockout-shortened season earlier that summer. Nowitzki and his coach recall all the hype that was said about him during that season, including predictions that he would return to Germany within a year.

“All the things those top coaches told us, it was garbage,” Geschwindner said in the segment.

He often had Nowitzki do unusual drills that focused on balance and footwork. He wanted Nowitzki to be able to do all the things on the court.

“In those days, all the big boys were weird,” he said. “Big guys were usually responsible for rebounding, but a good basketball team has to have five guys who can shoot. That’s why we started the Institute for Applied Nonsense.”

The nonsense used, Geschwinder explained, is the explanation for why they do these tests that many others see as rubbish or useless. They helped make Nowitzki the legend he was. His coach was always there, every step of the way from when Nowitzki was 14 years old on the streets of Germany to his final game in the NBA after 21 grueling seasons.

“Every time I needed you, one phone call and you were here to help me,” Nowitzki said.