It’s no secret that Mark Cuban wants Dirk Nowitzki to finish his career with the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban has made it quite clear that Nowitzki won’t be traded and though he will become a free agent soon, Cuban is willing to offer Dirk whatever he wants as he still maintains he wants to build around the aging star. Read more after the jump.
When Dirk negotiates a contract extension at some point this season or next summer (his deal ends after ’13-14), he’ll get as many more years tagged on as he’d like:
Norm Hitzges: How long a contract do you suspect you’ll offer Dirk once he gets into free agency this year and you start the re-up discussion.
Mark Cuban: I have no idea. But I’ll talk to Dirk about it. Pretty much whatever he wants. Dirk’s got a no-trade deal, so whether it’s one year, three years, 20 years, it really doesn’t matter. He gets to sign and re-sign as often as he wants. The length of the contract is more about how long longer Dirk wants to play more than anything else. Particularly with a young kid, he’s gonna want to spend time, but he’s also going to want to get some sleep. I don’t see Dirk walking away from the game anytime soon. Dirk really wants to come back and send a message to everybody that he’s got a lot left. The thing about Dirk is he’s skill driven. He’s basketball-IQ driven, he’s wins driven. He’s not driven by athleticism. As long as he stays healthy, he could play for a long time. It’s amazing to me that we see what Tim Duncan does, and people say, OK that’s Tim Duncan. And then they dismiss Dirk as if that’s a fantasy for Dirk to attain the same thing. The good news is Dirk’s using that as motivation. He’s motivated and I’m fired up about that. And I think we’ve put together some great pieces to complement him.
