- 5 months ago
By the 1990s, NBA teams had become fairly comfortable drafting players direct from overseas ... late in the draft. It wasn't until later in the decade that teams considered using high draft picks on players from foreign leagues. But before they could do so, the most exciting European prospect of his era would have to choose: NBA? College? Stay in Europe? This is the story of Dirk Nowitzki's history-defining fork in the road.
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00:00Imagine you're Dirk Nowitzki, but not modern-day Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki.
00:06Not retiring hero Dirk or NBA champion Dirk or even MVP Dirk or all-star Dirk or rookie Dirk or...
00:14Oh, wait, a little too far.
00:18Imagine 1996, your 18-year-old Dirk Nowitzki.
00:22Look at you. You're so tall. Your hair is so parted.
00:25People say the unusual training practices of your mentor, Holger Geschwindner,
00:30have really paid off.
00:31They've never seen a basketball player your size move or shoot the way you can.
00:36You could become one of the best German players ever.
00:39For now, you're just the star of your hometown team, the second-tier Würzburg X-Rays.
00:45You know why they're called the X-Rays. Seth did not know that bit of trivia until just now.
00:50You don't know who Seth is because, again, you're Dirk Nowitzki and it's 1996.
00:55Anyway, teen Dirk, how would you like your basketball career to proceed?
01:00You want to stay in Würzburg? Move to a bigger European league?
01:03Play college ball in the United States? Enter the NBA draft straight away?
01:08You don't have to make your choice immediately, but it would help to know which way you're...
01:12Oh, you like Penn State University.
01:16Okie doke. Um, we'll check back on that later.
01:25Welcome back to The Draft Cavern, our underground repository of every NBA draft pick ever.
01:33Please, as usual, sign the waiver.
01:35We're here once more to talk about how the draft and thus the NBA became so global with so many
01:42players from so many places.
01:44Guys like Dirk Nowitzki.
01:46In early draft history, all players born outside the United States arrived in North America well before they were drafted.
01:55It wasn't until 1970 that an NBA team drafted players direct from overseas.
02:01But drafting is just claiming rights.
02:041985 was the first time a foreign draft pick, Bulgaria's Yorgi Glushkov, actually joined the team that drafted him.
02:11Among these historic firsts, you'll spot some cups of coffee and missed connections.
02:18Guys who didn't stay long.
02:20Guys who didn't come over at all.
02:21Sometimes it was personal stuff.
02:24Familiarity.
02:24Status.
02:25Money.
02:26Sometimes politics got in the way.
02:29Sometimes it was patriotism.
02:30NBA players were disqualified for a while from their Olympic national teams.
02:35That is what made 1989 such a huge turning point.
02:39The Cold War was thawing.
02:41The Olympics planned to finally let NBA players participate.
02:46Five players from Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union joined the NBA for the 1989-1990 season.
02:52The so-called Green Card Five were pioneers not only because they came, but because some of them stuck around.
03:00Vlade Divac and Sarunis Martialonis were quite good.
03:03Drazen Petrovic of Croatia was breaking out as a true NBA superstar when a car crash took his life in
03:111993.
03:12Please take a moment to just look at this man's shooting numbers.
03:15Drazen was going to change the world.
03:18After Petrovic's death, NBA fans searching for the league's next true imported star were at a loss.
03:26These foreign-born stars each fell under that category of guys who played in the U.S. before getting drafted.
03:32They had unique backgrounds, but traditional draft profiles.
03:35They had been pre-processed into the cheap labor pipeline known as the NCAA.
03:41So the Green Card Five seemed like the vanguard of a new pipeline.
03:45But after 89, with the draft cut to just two rounds, the flow of import draft picks kind of sputtered.
03:53Take the case of Tony Kukoc.
03:55The young Croatian was clearly a rising star.
03:58NBA teams were horned up for Tony.
04:01But Kukoc didn't come stateside for college.
04:04He starred for his hometown pro club, Yugo Plastica.
04:08He won stuff and he got paid well.
04:10Kukoc's co-star, Dino Raja, had been drafted by the Celtics in 89, but Yugo Plastica fought hard to keep
04:17Raja from leaving.
04:19A year later, when Kukoc and Raja won their second straight EuroLeague title, the pressure for both to stay intensified.
04:27The word was that this investor would pay up to keep the gang together as long as possible.
04:33Oh, man.
04:34Oh, man.
04:35Anyway, in spring 1990, when Kukoc became automatically draft eligible because he was turning 22, NBA decision makers didn't know
04:45how to treat him.
04:47Lottery talent, but unknown availability.
04:50One of the draft's best prospects slipped to the second round.
04:55The Chicago Bulls claimed his rights 29th overall.
04:58Lo and behold, Kukoc made Chicago wait.
05:01His reasons were clear.
05:03Kukoc stayed in Europe, won stuff, and got paid well.
05:07Tony didn't join the Bulls until 1993, while Michael Jordan was retired.
05:12Kukoc was great in Chicago, but he still showed NBA teams that even in the 1990s, drafting a foreign player
05:19didn't mean you could just have that player.
05:22Some great players made their draft teams wait even longer.
05:26Some never came over at all.
05:29Even 1996, which looked like a pivotal draft for foreign imports, came with familiar caveats.
05:37The Kings made history by selecting Serbia's Peja Stojakovic with the 14th pick, but then Stojakovic stayed in Greece for
05:44a couple seasons.
05:45These other foreign first rounders had complex transfers of their own, injury-riddled, belated, contentious, and costly.
05:55NBA teams still much preferred that international players arrive through the college pipeline.
06:01Let some NCAA program do the hard work of recruiting overseas.
06:06And then, there was Dirk.
06:10Penn State only knew about Dirk Nowitzki because of a chance tip in 1994.
06:16In 96, assistant coach Chuck Swenson visited Germany to follow up.
06:22He liked what he saw, and the feeling was mutual, supposedly.
06:26State college reminded Dirk of Würzburg.
06:29Ryan, you went to Penn State. Does that sound right to you?
06:32Ja, es ist der selbe.
06:35Dirk's coach and mentor, Holger Geschwindner, assured Penn State that Dirk would be exempt from Germany's mandatory military conscription because
06:43of his height.
06:44Chuck Swenson returned stateside feeling optimistic about Dirk Nowitzki, Nittany Lion.
06:511997 changed that.
06:52The German army said, yes, you are unusually tall, but you're still getting conscripted.
06:58We'll just put you in the, you know, sports army.
07:01Dirk's assignment extended well into 1998, so any college basketball career would have to wait.
07:06In the meantime, word got out about Dirk.
07:10NBA stars visited Berlin for a Nike promotional tour, and they experienced Dirk's skills firsthand.
07:16Charles Barkley immediately tried to recruit Nowitzki to his alma mater, Auburn.
07:21Cal came on strong, and a bunch of elite programs followed.
07:25Penn State was not in the running anymore.
07:28Sorry, Ryan.
07:29Oh, scheisse.
07:31By springtime 98, Dirk was making official campus visits.
07:35He and Holger had a plan.
07:37Finish Army, play two years of NCAA ball, then enter the NBA draft at age 22.
07:42The pipeline.
07:44That same spring, Dirk participated in the Nike Hoop Summit in San Antonio, Texas.
07:50Elite international teams played against a squad of American high school all-stars.
07:55Some big-time future NBA guys.
07:57But college scouts weren't allowed in the building.
08:00It was just...
08:01Wait a second.
08:02Is that...
08:07Okay.
08:08I can explain.
08:09Back in 1989, Golden State Warriors assistant Donnie Nelson outmaneuvered the Soviet Basketball
08:16Federation and Ted Turner to bring his friend, Lithuanian star Sarunis Martialonis, to the
08:22NBA.
08:23When Lithuania won its independence and rekindled its long-dormant basketball federation, Nelson
08:29felt compelled to help out.
08:31Through his work with Martialonis and Team Lithuania, Donnie Nelson had a front-row seat
08:37to the best international talent.
08:39Meanwhile, he got hired as an assistant with the Phoenix Suns.
08:43Just like in Golden State, Donnie's favorite part of his job was scouting.
08:48He teamed up with Dick Perkadani, the guy who found Yorgi Glushkov, to convince the Suns
08:53to draft Steve Nash, a college player Nelson knew because of his international background.
08:59It seemed at the time like Donnie Nelson would be in Phoenix long-term.
09:03But when Donnie's father, Don Nelson, got named Dallas Mavericks head coach and GM in
09:101997 and said, hey, come be my successor in waiting, Donnie jumped mid-season.
09:16During that first half-season in Dallas, Donnie mostly worked as a scout, which was convenient
09:22because of his international side gigs, like coaching the world team at the Hoop Summit in
09:27San Antonio.
09:29After working with Dirk Nowitzki in pre-summit training, Donnie said, psst, dad, come watch
09:35this kid.
09:35And Don said, psst, son, he is very good at basketball.
09:40Thus began two simultaneous operations.
09:43Operation, the Dallas Mavericks want Dirk Nowitzki, and Operation, no, we don't, never even
09:49heard of him.
09:49Who's Dirk Nowitzki?
09:50You're Dirk Nowitzki.
09:51The Nelsons tried to hide Dirk, but they couldn't prevent him from playing in the nationally
09:56televised Hoop Summit.
09:58And unfortunately for the Mavs and Penn State and Cal and anyone else who already fancied
10:04Nowitzki, the big German played out of his goddamn mind that day.
10:08Suddenly, people were wondering, should this kid even bother with college?
10:13For a while, the answer from Dirk and company was yes, definitely.
10:17Holger said his pupil was not ready for the NBA.
10:20Nowitzki was reportedly choosing between Cal and Kentucky.
10:24But then, a surprise.
10:26Before the mid-May deadline for early entrance, 19-year-old Dirk entered the NBA draft.
10:33Ready or not, Dirk knew the NBA wanted him.
10:36The Mavericks' sweaty attempts to pretend they didn't want Nowitzki are adorable.
10:41Literally the day Dirk entered the draft, here's Donnie Nelson saying, I don't know,
10:46maybe Dirk should go to college.
10:47A few days later, the Mavericks won the sixth pick in the lottery and Donnie revealed their target.
10:53Larry Hughes.
10:54He's so silky smooth.
10:56We, the Dallas Mavericks, love Larry Hughes.
10:59Put that in the newspaper.
11:01Dirk Neu- Dirk Neu- Neu- Neuitzki?
11:03Hmm.
11:04Interesting suggestion.
11:05Seems risky.
11:06You know who's great though, Larry Hughes.
11:09Meanwhile, Dirk himself kept the public guessing.
11:12He skipped pre-draft camp, he didn't schedule any workouts,
11:16supposedly because of new unexpected army obligations.
11:20Rumors spread that Dirk was gonna accept
11:22some huge offer overseas.
11:25Maybe some of this percolated because Dallas was trying
11:28to scare people off of Dirk, but either way,
11:30Nowitzki stayed in the draft and the Mavericks kept bluffing.
11:34Local papers sniffed out the ruse,
11:36but at least one person was fooled.
11:38Rick Pitino, the Celtics boss, had his own
11:41semi-secret Dirk pursuit cooking and felt confident
11:45that Nowitzki would fall to Boston with the 10th pick.
11:48So here we go.
11:50Draft night, June 24th, 1998.
11:54First overall pick, Michael Oluwakandi, born in Nigeria,
11:58raised in London, and then literally picked
12:00an American college at random.
12:02The pipeline.
12:04Two, three, four, five more college guys.
12:07And then at last, with the sixth pick in the 1998 NBA draft,
12:12the Dallas Mavericks select.
12:13Robert Traylor from the University of Michigan.
12:17The Celtics must have been thrilled.
12:19Seven, eight, there goes Larry Hughes.
12:22Boston's guy was almost certainly about to drop to the 10th.
12:25Dirk Nowitzki from Wersberg, Germany.
12:29Oh, what the fuck?
12:30Okay, so here's the deal.
12:32The Nelsons wanted Dirk.
12:33Their boss, Mavericks owner Ross Perot Jr. wanted to pay Dirk
12:37as little as possible, so he insisted they trade down to get him.
12:42Dallas obviously couldn't slide any lower than Boston's 10th pick,
12:46so Don Nelson talked to Milwaukee at nine and, with Donnie's prodding,
12:51finagled what was essentially a three-team trade.
12:54In the end, Dallas had Steve Nash, Donnie's old diamond in the rough from Phoenix,
12:59and they had the rights to Dirk Nowitzki, the highest foreign-born, foreign-employed draft pick ever.
13:07In retrospect, this is one of the most significant instances of talent acquisition
13:12in the history of professional sports.
13:15At the moment, it was a double question mark.
13:17Nash was not even a regular NBA starter yet, and Dirk was not eager to come over right away.
13:24He said he was not NBA ready.
13:26His German team was about to get promoted, and even if he wanted to leave them,
13:31he could get a big contract closer to home.
13:33Now, Dallas waiting around for Dirk would be a tough look,
13:37especially since they passed on a surprise faller,
13:41All-American small forward Paul Pierce, to get Dirk.
13:44Nice little consolation prize for Rick Pitino.
13:47The Mavericks thus commenced a new, time-sensitive mission.
13:51Operation Make Dirk Nowitzki Commit to Dallas before July 1st
13:54when there's definitely a lockout coming and possibly a long one.
13:58Yeah, the Mavs had less than a week to talk to Dirk.
14:01Beginning July 1st, teams would be forbidden from contacting players during a work stoppage.
14:07So on June 25th, the day after the draft,
14:11both Nelsons and Perreault flew to Germany to court their draft pick.
14:16People assumed the Mavs already had some sort of handshake deal with Dirk
14:19before they drafted him, but Don Nelson said,
14:22Nope, I'm not that savvy. We're just gonna go beg.
14:25Dirk's mentor hosted the Mavs contingent at his castle,
14:29but he was circumspect.
14:32The kid himself came off remarkably self-critical.
14:36I should stay here for now. I'm not ready. I'm too weak.
14:40But he agreed to at least visit before the window shut.
14:43On June 28th, Dirk arrived in Texas.
14:46The pressure was on the Mavericks.
14:49This quote is coming from a dude who once pried a prospect out from behind the Iron Curtain.
14:56On June 29th, Novitski joined Nash and the elder Nelson for a delightfully awkward press conference.
15:03Novitski was not a Maverick, mind you. Not even unofficially.
15:06But here he was with the Mavs coach and the new Mavs point guard wearing a suit the Mavs had
15:12bought him.
15:12And then to get him to wear it was yet another traumatic experience.
15:17Holding up a Novitski Mavs jersey. Dirk had little to say.
15:21Dirk, do you have a statement you want to make?
15:25No, no, no, no.
15:26Nelson had much, and he laid down, ever so gently, a deadline for Dirk.
15:32I have asked him if he would make a decision by tomorrow's.
15:37The coach tried to cut the tension with jokes.
15:39They're on commitment. I'm getting the suit back.
15:43But he had just given Dirk 24 hours to make up his mind about his future.
15:48Nelly's plan in the meantime was to have Dirk over for a cookout and get him in the team facility
15:53for some on-court work before the lockout forbade all of that.
15:57That night, June 29th, 1998, marked a fork in the road for Dirk and for basketball history.
16:06Because while Novitski promised he would come over someday, no matter what,
16:11if he waited even a year, who knows what might happen during that interim.
16:15If you want to thank anyone for paving this side of the forked road,
16:20I guess thank whomever cooked at the Nelson Family BBQ and thank Samaki Walker.
16:25The basketball portion of Dirk's pre-decision eve was a one-on-one workout against the backup big
16:33man Dallas had drafted ninth two years prior. Walker was a solid player, but, uh, well,
16:39I think the Mavs put some thought into offering Samaki Walker as a measuring stick to show Dirk
16:45he was readier than he believed. The best footage I can find of Dirk cooking Samaki is dubbed over in
16:52German, but you can still hear an exhausted walker speaking all the English you need.
16:57He's ready.
16:57Dirk is clear and will surely be better.
17:00The workout, the cookout, the poolside reverie, the calls to his parents,
17:05whatever it was, Dirk decided and then announced on June 30th, hours before the lockout,
17:18Dirk couldn't sign anything yet, but he gave Dallas his word.
17:22Dude, don't wipe your mouth. You're about to shake hands with your ball. Okay, good save.
17:27Dirk flew back to Germany to wait out the lockout, which lasted well into January 99.
17:32It tested Dirk's commitment, but when NBA basketball returned, so did Dirk Nowitzki.
17:38The Mavs had drafted and signed the NBA's first ever top 10 draft pick imported straight from overseas.
17:47All it took was subterfuge, deal-making, persuasion, and prayer. That was a lot of headache when Dallas
17:56could have just done the simple thing and picked Paul Pierce fresh out of the pipeline.
18:02Piers better be a bust, they said. Or else this German kid, they said, better be historically good.
18:09He better be worth all that.
18:33Get 400 and demise.
18:35That's right, remember?
18:40You could be a Jew, but ever only do you, bitch.
18:42I'm a beggar in a merchant project, you could do it.
18:43Once a century, believe in a market project.