Dallas Mavericks and NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki had to keep it real.
He’s a Hall of Famer now, so why not?
The 2011 NBA Finals MVP was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this past weekend alongside a few San Antonio Spurs rivals, most notably Gregg Popovich and Tony Parker, who he competed against during much of their historic careers.
Nowitzki, who reached two NBA Finals amid the Spurs’ two-decade-long stranglehold of the Western Conference, including five NBA titles from 1999-2014, admitted Friday evening at the enshrinement that he hated the Spurs.
“I’m not gonna lie, I used to hate the Spurs,” Nowitzki said with a laugh regarding his long-time in-state rival.
“Every year, they were so good. Every year, for so long. They were always kind of beating us up. They were the big brother until we finally broke through in ’06 and beat them for the first time in the playoffs.”
Nowitzki later added that while he had his disdain for San Antonio back in his playing days, he has “nothing but respect” for that group, including the inducted Coach Pop and Parker, as well as Tim Duncan, who was present for this weekend’s historic festivities.
“There’s a lot of mutual respect,” he said. “We had some great battles at the highest stage but always tried to be classy and respect each other and I think that’s what we did for a long period of time.”
Nowitzki was a 14-time NBA All-Star after being selected No. 9 overall in the 1998 NBA Draft.
The 7-foot German forward also made 12 All-NBA teams, was the 2006-07 league MVP and was named to the 75th-Year Anniversary Team in 2022.
Nowitzki currently serves as a Special Advisor to the Mavericks, with whom he played for his entire career until he retired from basketball in 2019.
