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[h2]Nowitzki: Only LeBron or Wade could make the difference[/h2][/size][size=-1]
[h5]11:36 PM CDT on Monday, July 5, 2010[/h5][/size][size=-1]
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected][/size]
Free agency fit
Dirk Nowitzki like a hospital gown. He never felt comfortable and got out of it as fast as he could.
Nowitzki said Monday that he only needed to hear that the
Mavericks are serious about upgrading the roster during the next four seasons, and that's why he agreed to a discounted contract with owner
Mark Cuban during the weekend.
In his first interview since the sides hammered out the $80 million deal, Nowitzki talked at length about many topics, including the free-agent process and the Mavericks' strategies on moving forward. He also said making a big splash this summer isn't necessarily the only way to keep the window genuinely open to win an
NBA championship.
The nine-time All-Star has learned plenty during the last few days. What he learned most was that free agency is "not fun."
"Obviously, a couple teams were interested," he said. "But it never really got to the point where I was ready to listen. My heart's here. To go through the whole process that everybody's going through, I don't like that. It was just weird. And to have two-hour presentations when I know I'm not really interested. I didn't see any sense in that. It didn't really get that far.
"When it was all said and done, to me, I feel like I started this thing here and after 12 years now, I feel like I got unfinished business here. I just wanted to not run away from something that's right there. I met with Cuban, and he said: 'You know we're all in this together.'
"And he's right. We started this and it wouldn't even feel right to go somewhere else and chase something that nobody can promise me."
That uncertainty played a big part in Nowitzki deciding quickly that Dallas is the right situation for him. He has seen all the scenarios involving Lincoln-ex
Chris Bosh ,
Joe Johnson ,
Amare Stoudemire and
Carlos Boozer, among others.
But from Nowitzki's perch, there are only two players who could be added to the Mavericks' roster that would make the ultimate difference —
LeBron James and
Dwyane Wade.
"I see it this way, if you don't get LeBron and you don't get Wade, are you going to give the max to somebody else and lock yourself in with a player who's not going to get you over the hump?" Nowitzki said. "You got to be a little careful with locking yourself into something with a max contract with somebody that's going to give you 55 wins, and you're still going to lose in the second or third round.
"So to me, if you could get Wade or LeBron, you got to go for it. But other than that, it's tough. You don't want to completely screw the organization over for four or five years if it's not going to put it over the top."
So, in talks with Cuban that lasted more than an hour Saturday, Nowitzki had some strategies laid out for him. And that was enough, although he didn't want to divulge precisely what the Mavericks have in mind.
He understands completely, however, that the idea is to win a title and if it doesn't happen in 2010-11, he pledges to be patient.
"To me, we got enough time here in four years to go for it," he said. "And if we shouldn't get anyone here this year [in a trade], we still got to leave it out there and go for it. And four years is a long time. We can make something happen eventually."
But this summer remains very intriguing, he said.
"There are some scenarios out there that would be very good for this organization," he said. "More than anything, I wanted to still know that we're still working on this. I didn't want to feel stuck with another 50 wins and a first-round exit. Obviously, you never know in this business. Sometimes you get something. Sometimes you don't. I just wanted a reassurance that we're going to try. I definitely needed to hear that from Mark's mouth."
That was why Nowitzki came to Dallas from Germany on Thursday. He thought this was important enough to do a face-to-face with Cuban, who has declined comment until Thursday when Nowitzki can officially sign the contract.
Nowitzki has been widely commended for his loyalty to the franchise. Not many players accept $16 million less than they could have earned to stay with the same team. But he said that loyalty runs both ways.
"Mark has been terrific to me," Nowitzki said. "The stuff he's helped me with, especially last year with all the stuff I went through. He's been more than an owner to me. We've had a friendship-type of relationship and Donnie [Nelson] has been great, too. It really was a no-brainer."
Not that there weren't temptations, of course. Nowitzki said free agency has been dominating his thoughts for months, even when he was on vacation with his family.
He kept coming back to the same problem.
"If somebody could tell me, 'you come next year and we'll win it,' obviously I would have looked at it very, very hard," Nowitzki said. "But nobody knows what's really going to happen and what's going on. So it felt great to me. This has been my new home for so long. Something unbelievable would have had to come up.
"Relieved is a good word. I can't even imagine LeBron going through this whole thing for two years, or Bosh being asked every other day for the last year. I'm so happy that it was only a couple days. That was already way, way enough for me."
In the end, his partnership with Cuban was an overriding factor. Nowitzki has never played for another NBA team, and he's committed that, for now, he wants to win a championship with Cuban in Dallas.
"From Day 1, we knew that me and Cubes would have to work at this together if we want to win," he said. "To me, it was never really about money. Obviously, I can't sell myself way short of market value. I can't do that. But other than that, I'm more than happy to help this organization and give it a chance to go to another level by bringing somebody else in. So we'll see what happens."
