Mark Cuban: Length of Dirk Nowitzki’s Next Contract Will be ‘Whatever He Wants’


Seems safe to say Dirk Nowitzki is going to be a Dallas Maverick for the remainder of his career. According to what Mark Cuban told Norm Hitzges on KTCK-AM—transcribed by the Dallas Morning News—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.”