http://tinyurl.com/gs2soxb
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki told reporters Friday that his plan has
not changed: the 37-year-old wants to pick up his $8.7 million option for next
season, play out the year and then see how his body feels. In the end, he still
wants to retire a Maverick.
"Obviously I still have a year on the contract, and I'd love to fulfill it,"
Nowitzki said, via ESPN's Tim MacMahon. "I do have the possibility, if I"m
correct, to opt out if I can. That's not really on the plan. I always said I
wanted to play those three years to the end and kind of reevaluate what my body
feels like at the end of those three years. But, saying, all that, I'll just
wait, [see] how the season goes. But in my mind, after we won the championship,
it was always clear I would retire a Mav."
The topic came up because Nowitzki appeared on 105.3 The Fan's The Ben and Skin
Show and was asked if he'd consider going elsewhere if the Mavs decided it was
time to rebuild.
"You know, that's something I'll focus on from summer to summer," Nowitzki
said. "I think I'm in the midst of chasing the playoffs here and trying to play
well and compete every night. You know, that's something we'll revisit this
summer. Obviously, I still have a year under contract. I could choose to opt
out, I think that's in my contract, but honestly I haven't really spent a lot
of thought on that at all. You know, like I said, I want to really make the
playoffs bad. I think our fan base deserves that and it's always a fun part of
the year and it's warm out and the competition is high. We'd love to be a part
of that. And everything else, we can come together and talk about after."
Nowitzki addressed those comments specifically on Friday.
"If I'm not mistaken, the question was, 'If we're going through a rebuilding
phase...,' is what they asked me yesterday," Nowitzki said. "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 it's that's what the Mavs are gonna do is
rebuild, then we'll just have to wait and see."
Four years ago, Nowitzki said that, as "the grandfather of Dallas sports," he
was too old to rebuild. He is as consistent with his comments as he is on the
court.
Nowitzki's been so loyal to the Mavericks that it's doubtful anyone would be
mad at him if he chased another ring. The question is whether Dallas owner
Mark Cuban would put him in that position. A couple of years ago, Cuban said
that he'd tank if it made sense, but too many teams were doing it for it to be
a viable option. Last summer, in the brief period where it looked like DeAndre
Jordan was going to Dallas, Cuban said that he had discussions about having a
"David Robinson year" if the Mavs couldn't sign a significant free agent. Then
he took it back.
In all likelihood, Cuban will approach this offseason the same way he has
approached the last few: trying to add pieces around Nowitzki to make another
run. Things sure would be simpler if Jordan had signed, though, wouldn't they?
德国坦克跟记者说明年的选择权他会捡 (明年再考虑要不要退休)