Carlisle: It looks 'very promising' Nowitzki will play 1 more year
Dirk Nowitzki has another year left in him, according to his Dallas Mavericks coach.
"At this point, it looks very promising that he's going to play another year," Rick Carlisle told ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
Nowitzki, 39, has maintained he wants to play one more season - health permitting - or else he'll retire after this year following 20 seasons exclusively with the Mavericks, the latter half under Carlisle.
The 7-foot German is owed $5 million this season and has a team option for next year worth $5 million, and he hopes to ride it out.
"As long as my body feels fine like it has so far, with no setbacks like last year when I missed two months, I'm looking forward to hopefully fulfilling my contract," Nowitzki said earlier this season.
The surefire Hall of Famer has missed only one game this season, but is averaging modest numbers by his standards: 12.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists in 25.1 minutes. Though Dallas was destined for the lottery from the get-go, Nowitzki has spoken out against tanking because it's in his DNA to compete, and he doesn't want the rebuilding Mavs to develop a losing culture.
He will go down in history as one of the greatest international players of all time, having led Dallas to its first ever championship in 2011, and also earning 13 All-Star appearances, 12 All-NBA nods, the 2007 MVP, and the 2011 Finals MVP.