Dirk Werner Nowitzki (IPA-de?d??k ?we?n? no?vitski) (born June 19, 1978) is a German (German people) professional basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. An alumnus of R�ntgen (Wilhelm R�ntgen) Gymnasium (Gymnasium (Germany)) and DJK W�rzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was drafted ninth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1998 NBA Draft, and was immediately traded to the Mavericks, where he has played ever since. Standing at heightft=7, Nowitzki plays the power forward (power forward (basketball)) position but also has the mobility and size to play the other frontcourt positions, center (center (basketball)) and small forward.

Nowitzki is a nine-time NBA All-Star (List of NBA All-Stars) and ten-time member of the All-NBA Teams, and is the first European-born player in NBA history to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player award (National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award). He is the first Maverick ever to be voted into an All-NBA Team and also holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records. He led the German national basketball team to a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and the silver medal in EuroBasket 2005, and was leading scorer and elected Most Valuable Player in both tournaments. Regarded as one of the best European players in basketball history, Nowitzki was named the Euroscar European Basketball Player of the Year (Euroscar Award) by the Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport for five years in a row, the Mister Europa European Player of the Year (Mister Europa) by the Italian sports magazine Superbasket in 2005, and the FIBA Europe Basketball Player of the Year the same year.