Dirk convinced Ben Stiller to play in charity tennis game by sliding into his DMs

Dirk Nowitzki appears to have mastered the art of sliding into DMs.

The Dallas Mavericks star told reporters Thursday that he was able to convince Ben Stiller to play in his charity tennis tournament by sending him a private message on Twitter.

"I slid into his DMs, like the kids say these days," Nowitzki said.

He expanded on the story during an appearance on the "Ben and Skin Show" on 105.3 The Fan, revealing that it was actually his wife's idea to reach out to the actor:

Wifey's like, "Hey, who should we invite? Doesn't Ben Stiller follow you on Twitter? Why don't you throw him a message?" So I DMed my guy Ben Stiller, never spoken to him. Politely said "Hey, huge fan of yours, know you're a huge tennis fan, here's what I'm doing ... " Next thing you know same day I get this response. "That sounds awesome, sounds really cool, I'm not that good at tennis but I'm really interested." We kind of stayed in touch and a few weeks ago, he said, "OK I'm in. I'm coming."