Dirk Werner Nowitzki ( ) (born June 19 1978 in Würzburg, Germany) is a German professional basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. An alumnus of Röntgen Gymnasium grammar school and DJK Würzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was drafted ninth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1998 NBA Draft and was immediately traded to the Mavericks, where he has been playing ever since. Standing at , Nowitzki plays the power forward position, but is also capable of playing other frontcourt positions like center, small forward or point forward.

Nowitzki is a seven-time NBA All-Star and seven-time member of the All-NBA Teams and is the first European-born player in NBA history to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player award. He is the first Maverick ever to be voted into an All-NBA Team and also holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records. nowitzki/bio.html" target="_blank">Dirk Nowitzki - Bio, nba.com, accessed 6 January 2008 He led the _German national basketball team to a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and the silver medal in EuroBasket 2005, and was leading scorer and elected Most Valuable Player in both tournaments. Regarded as one of the best European players in basketball history, Nowitzki was named "European Basketball Player of the Year" by Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport for five years in a row and voted FIBA European Basketball Player of the Year in 2005.