Nowitzki makes history once again, sending shivers down fans’ spines

Nowitzki

Upon his Hall of Fame induction, Dirk Nowitzki’s composure was briefly rattled when the teleprompter failed, causing him to break into a sweat. Moments later, the ceremony turned emotional.

When the pesky teleprompter finally cooperated again, Dirk Nowitzki turned to the man without whom he would never have reached the stage: his mentor, Holger Geschwindner. “Harry Potter had Dumbledore, Alexander the Great had Aristotle, and I—I had Holger,” the basketball legend said in his charming acceptance speech, marking his induction into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

“We rowed, boxed, fenced and read books. I did handstands, frog-jumped and even played the saxophone,” Nowitzki recalled. At the time, he did not grasp the purpose behind these varied drills. “What I didn’t understand back then was that you shaped me as a person and as an athlete in the broader sense—not just as a basketball player. I understand that now. You believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself,” the 47-year-old said.

During a ten-minute address, Nowitzki journeyed through his entire career, thanking his parents for driving him to games from an early age and his sister for even doing his homework. He reflected on his years with the German youth and senior sides—highlighting the 2002 World Cup bronze and the 2005 European Championship silver—before detailing his transformative spell with the Dallas Mavericks, where he “grew into a man” before retiring in 2019.

BASKET-FIBA-HALL OF FAME

Nowitzki is only the second German to be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame, following Schrempf.

All the honours and titles, Nowitzki explained in his typically down-to-earth manner, always take a back seat to the human aspect. “Experiences mean more than trophies, people mean more than trophies, and stories mean more than wealth,” the Würzburg native stated. Having travelled the world at FIBA level with the national team, he felt deeply honoured to become only the second German, after Detlef Schrempf, to enter the Hall of Fame.

Ironically, the glitch occurred right at the start of his induction ceremony: when he began his speech, the teleprompter failed, forcing him to read from his phone for several minutes. “I’d already started to sweat,” he admitted afterwards. “That was quite a stressful situation.” Technicians eventually fixed the issue, and Nowitzki refused to let it dampen the occasion. Long after the ceremony, he was still signing autographs, posing for selfies and chatting with reporters.

His achievements helped pave the way for the world-champion generation led by Dennis Schröder, yet he always remained approachable. A superstar who, although living in the USA, never seemed to have lost touch with his German roots. “He’s always kept his feet on the ground, a fine chap and a good friend,” enthused DBB President Ingo Weiss. Nowitzki, Weiss continued, is “an absolute beacon in basketball.”