Why Mavs Icon Dirk Turned Down Nets Job
DALLAS - Dirk Nowitzki has two reasons for having turned down buddy Steve Nash's invitation to join Nash's coaching staff with the Brooklyn Nets.
Family.
And family ... of a different sort.
“First of all, I don’t know if I could do it anywhere but here,” Nowitzki tells Brad Townsend of theDallas Morning News when asked about the invitation from Nash, who was recently named to the Nets head coaching spot. "That's of course first.''
"Anywhere but here,'' meaning that Dirk, as a Mavs lifer, views his future employment in the basketball world, if anywhere, in Dallas.
Nowitzki is DFW's favorite adopted son. His loyalty to the organization in which he was employed for all of his 21 NBA seasons seems unbreakable - as does his relationship with the people who run the Mavs, owner Mark Cuban and GM Donnie Nelson.
Furthermore, Nowitzki's devotion to the DFW community - through charity work and more - is also a foundation of a life he's built here with his wife, Jessica, and their three young children.
As DallasBasketball.com was first to write, Cuban is interested in having Dirk join the Mavs ownership group. At the very least, Nowitzki will continue on as an unofficial ambassador of all things Mavs ... and if he ever wants to actually do the work as an assistant coach or a front-office guy?
That job would likely happen in Dallas.
At the same time, why "work'' when Dirk - who admits to developing his first pot-belly ever - is having so much busy fun in retirement?
The second reason for his declining Nash's invite he says, is "the timing is not right. I have being with the family. I'm so over basketball at this point that (accepting a move to Brooklyn) just wasn't even a thought for me.''
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Dirk thinks the world of Nash, of course - "I think he’s going to be great. ... He already has what it takes to be a natural leader to me'' - but Nowitzki is, in his mind, simply not a Brooklynite and simply not a Net.
His family is in Dallas. And his family is the Mavericks.
