Dirk Nowitzki is putting the past behind him as he and Dwyane Wade are bound for basketball immortality in next week’s Naismith Hall of Fame ceremony.
As he recently guested on “The Saturday Stein Line with Marc Stein”, the Dallas Mavericks icon made it known that there’s nothing but respect between him and Wade amid the embattled past they’ve shared as basketball rivals.
“I wouldn’t say friends,” Nowitzki said about his relationship with Wade. “I think there’s a mutual sense of respect for each other’s career. Obviously we’re cordial. We were sitting actually in Houston at one dinner. We’re sitting at the same table with family, we sat together.
“There’s just no bad blood obviously anymore. People, we all move on. Things were settled on both sides; that neither sides like.”
He added: “Just like I said earlier, that’s part of competition at the highest level. To me, I’m old school; there were really no friends at the highest level. I understand now that everything is little different (between us).”
In a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News, Nowitzki revealed that he shared a bond with Wade back in April as they had dinner with their families right after they were named as inductees of this year’s Hall of Fame class.
Highlighted by mockery, officiating and fiery banters, both Nowitzki and Wade have developed bitter rivalry from the past as they also met in the 2006 and 2011 NBA Finals. The ex-superstar guard went on to draw the first blood of the championship matchup, but the German great managed to deliver a payback five years later.
For Nowitzki, he is at peace and happy now knowing that he and the former Miami Heat cornerstone will get honored as members of the 2023 Enshrinement alongside other basketball greats like Gregg Popovich, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, and Becky Hammon.
“Are we friends? No, we don’t text each other, but I think there’s a lot of respect there and were both happy to be going in the Hall of Fame,” Nowitzki concluded.
