NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki will be playing pre-season games in Barcelona and his home nation, Germany, ESPNDallas.com has reported.
Dallas Mavericks are the surprise choice to be featured in the NBA’s pre-season European tour as owner Mark Cuban isn’t happy that his team would have to travel overseas, on top of playing an 82-game NBA season.
But a source close to ESPN has said that organisations can no longer pass on the league’s invitation to play overseas and the Mavs have been a long overdue choice due to the factor of Nowitzki. The choice to have Dallas in Europe also was heightened when they won the NBA title in 2011.
Nowitzki had not long ago said that he regretted playing at Eurobasket for Germany straight after a long NBA season. They went out at the second round stage in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The 7-footer is averaging 18.3 points and 6.2 rebounds thus far this season and was recently voted as a Western Conference reserve for the upcoming All-Star Game in Orlando at the end of the month.
