Questions surround Dirk Nowitzki following his team's early out in last season's playoffs.
Nowitzki: I won the Lower Franconia tennis championship when I was 12. Does that count?
SPIEGEL: Not really.
Nowitzki: I'm now 29 years old. Two years ago, I was a member of the German team in the European championship final and last year I played for the Mavericks in the NBA finals. We failed both times. Things just don't always go the way you want them to. But I'm certainly aware that many stars eventually quit and that it leaves a certain taste in their mouths. That's when people say that so-and-so never quite made it. I'd like to avoid that experience. I want to finally get that championship here in the NBA within the next three years.
SPIEGEL: How painful was it to have been eliminated in the first round of the NBA playoffs with the Mavericks this year and then in the quarter finals of the European championship with the German national team?
Nowitzki: I was out of my mind, and incredibly frustrated. That's when you question everything -- your entire career. Especially the early elimination in the NBA after such a great season, that was terrible. Only now, after a few months, is it possible to see the bright side. For example, that I was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player.
SPIEGEL: You once said that in sports there is no such thing as a disgrace.
Nowitzki: And I stand by what I said. If you do the best you can, you have nothing to be ashamed of. A defeat is not a disgrace.
SPIEGEL: In the third game in last year's finals, against Miami, you missed a freethrow three seconds before the end of the game. It was the first time you were heavily criticized in the US.
Nowitzki: You don't lose a game because of a missed freethrow, just as you don't win a game because of a made freethrow. The whole game was messed up. Especially at the end of a game, when everything comes together, there are lots of situations in which there was something you should have done differently. I have trouble sleeping after every game, especially after important ones. That's when there's a lot going through your head. A failed freethrow, the entire game, the many missed opportunities. Reflecting about the game is part of sports, but getting over those kinds of games is also part of it.
SPIEGEL: Do you fail in key situations because you think too much?
Nowitzki: I take my sport damned seriously. Basketball is my life. There are other people who go into important games as if they were any other game. I'm a brooder and I spend a lot of time thinking about my opponent, about the things he can do and about what I have to do to win. I don't think I'll ever be able to change that.
SPIEGEL: Does that come from fear of failure?
Nowitzki: Hmm, I really can't let myself think that way. Actually, it's more like the opposite. I often dream about slamming the ball into the net in a situation where everything is on the line.
SPIEGEL: Do you work with mental trainers in the US?
Nowitzki: We had a very good psychologist with the Mavericks for four years. Unfortunately, he switched to baseball last year. He was very effective in helping me get over defeats. Unfortunately, I had already been in the US for five years when he joined the team, and I had developed my routines long before that. He got there a little too late for me.
Nowitzki during happier times last season.
Nowitzki: First of all, he has to get to know the athlete really well. The way he thinks and feels. In the end, he taught me exercises that helped me think positively and made it easier for me to bring myself down after a game. I still do that today. I try reading or playing the guitar. I'm also learning how to play the piano now. I've already started lessons and I've even bought a piano. It also has something to do with the fact that I'm a little afraid of dumbing myself down and stagnating intellectually. I have to make sure that I don't just hang out with the guys and play PlayStation.
SPIEGEL: After the Mavericks dropped out of the playoffs, you and Holger Geschwindner, your personal trainer and the man who discovered you, spent five weeks traveling in Australia. Was that a kind of therapy?
Nowitzki: The idea was to get some distance. The media in Dallas really ripped us apart and wanted to see the team replace all its players, and they were claiming that we were all lousy. I just wanted to go someplace far away. Basketball players aren't that important in Australia. We did a lot. We went hiking, played the guitar around the campfire at night and talked. One of the things we talked about was what could happen after the end of my career.
SPIEGEL: And?
Nowitzki: I want to start setting things up now. Basketball gave me a lot, which is why I want to stay connected with this sport later on, maybe working with young people. But it would be more in the background. Being in the spotlight was never really my thing. I never wanted to be famous. Of course, you also think about different things at 29 than when you were 20. In the long run, for example, planning a family is a very important goal for me. I haven't found the right woman yet. That's something I want to pursue in the next few years.
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