DALLAS, TX — Dirk Nowitzki doesn’t move laterally quite as well as he once did, but he’s still fond of giving his good friend and Dallas Mavericks broadcaster Devin Harris some good-natured ribbing about Harris’ tennis game.
“I actually didn’t ask him back [for five years] because his tennis was so bad, but he asked to come back, so here he is,” Nowitzki said of Harris in the event’s introductory press conference. “I hope everyone is ready for some, somewhat suspect, tennis. Devin’s my guy obviously.
It’s not going to be any better than it was five years ago, but love Devin. He’s got a huge heart. he’s always ready to help out wherever you need him, so I’m glad he’s back, and we’ll see what he’s got.”
Double faults were counted throughout the day’s events, and though they were common, the day went off without a hitch at Dallas’ Banner House T-Bar-M indoor tennis facility. Nowtizki played delegator when he wasn’t firing first-serve fastballs during his time on the court and talking trash to another good friend in Steve Nash, his opposite team captain.
“Yours,” Nowitzki would tell his doubles partner when a ball would have required more than one or two steps in either direction. “That’s you.”
Nash won the impromptu Knock-Out game over fellow finalist and Dude Perfect co-founder Coby Cotton, and Nash’s team also won the Eliminator challenge over Team Dirk, prompting Nowitzki to wonder whether he should stack his own team next year in order to get a win and some bragging rights over his favorite point guard.
About 1,000 of Dallas’ country club types filled the stands at T-Bar-M in Far North Dallas, getting a laugh out of celebrity appearances from Texas Rangers’ Hall of Famer Elvis Andrus and local radio personality Corby Davidson. Mavericks broadcaster Jeff “Skin” Wade and NBA insider Marc Stein handled host and emcee duties in between doubles matches.
Most of the attendees that I spoke to were associated with either Dirk’s foundation or one of the event’s sponsors, but the event created a fun “see-and-be-seen-in-your-cutest-tennis-outfit” atmosphere in North Dallas.
“When I first got here the Mavs were a little low on the totem pole, so they kind of told us to stay away, ‘don’t come to our event,’ but I kind of grew into it as we got better,” Nowitzki said. “I always mention my buddies Steve Nash and Michael Finley who were veterans who had been around a couple years and are great personalities, great people with big hearts, and they both had foundations, so I kind of learned from them. You learn to give back to the community that you play in. The NBA makes an emphasis on that to take care of the community, so you learn from veterans, you learn from your team. Obviously people come out, support you and spend their hard-earned money on you, and it’s on NBA players to give back and be part of the community, so it was instilled in me early. I founded the foundation in 2001 in my second or third year, so it’s been a long time, and I’ve been proud of the run, of the journey. The foundation took off more once Jess came on board — my wife — she came from the non-profit world and brought all her connections from the arts and her network, and then we started having events like this and that’s when the foundation really took off.
Cooper Flagg was in attendance at the event but did not take part in any of the “suspect tennis.” Former NBA star Joakim Noah, whose dad Yannick won the 1983 French Open and former Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett were in attendance as well. Andrus, though his backhand form leaves a little to be desired, was the author of several dazzling hustle points during his time on the court.
“Cooper, I heard, is not much of a tennis player, but his support means the world to us,” Nowitzki said. “We’re excited to host him, show him a good time, hang out a bit — yea just get to know him and some other community leaders a little bit. Hopefully the Mavs will have him for a long, long time. The hype is real, for sure.”
Before the tennis tournament took shape seven years ago, the Nowitzki Foundation’s premiere annual event was Dirk’s annual celebrity baseball game, which was held several times at Riders Field in Frisco. Dirk has since moved on from belting seeing-eye singles through a slow-moving infield to serving missiles into the waiting backhands of local emissaries at this new charitable endeavor while still maintaining that characteristic deprecating charm and wit throughout the event.
Through his foundation, Nowitzki awards grants annually to organizations focusing on children’s wellbeing, health and education. With this he offers the people of Dallas-Fort Worth an opportunity to help give positive experiences to children around the world. Recent grant recipients include the Dallas Tennis Education Academy for Oak Cliff, the Grant Halliburton Foundation, G.I.F.T.4.S Academy, C5 Texas, Cafe Momentum, Ascend Dallas and the Heroes Foundation. The Nowtizki Foundation has raised over $250,000 this year and hopes Saturday’s event will provide a much needed boon for charitable organizations in the area that aren’t as well-equipped to raise their own funds going forward.
Though his tenure in the Mavs’ front office fizzled out in a somewhat head-scratching end as the Adelson Regime took over majority ownership of the team, professionally, Nowitzki still retains looser ties to the team while he transitions into a broadcast role himself with Amazon Prime.
“I’ve been anxious [to get started] a little bit,” Nowitzki said of his new-found press pass. “Started looking at some rosters. I don’t want to get there on October 24th and don’t know the players or this coach, so I’m started to prepare early. If I commit to something, I want to do a great job. It’s getting real now. I think — happy with the crew we assembled. Steve, being a friend and knowing Blake [Griffin] for a long time, I think there’s some chemistry and we’re going to be comfortable up there. We’ll joke around a bunch. We’ll hopefully analyze and it’ll be fun. I never thought I’d be a part of the media, no offense, but I think this is a great opportunity with some great people so I’m looking forward to how this is going to shape up.”
For his part, Nash added:
“We’re excited. It’s a new opportunity for us to challenge ourselves and to do it together. I’m sure we’ve got a lot to learn and a lot of growth ahead of us, but hopefully it doesn’t take too long before we can find our voice and be as authentic as possible, and people can get a glimpse of not only our experience on the court but our friendship off the court as well.”
