Dirk Nowitzki Parents: Meet Helga Nowitzki And Jorg Werner

Publish date: 2024-05-18

Dirk Nowitzki is popularly known as a German former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is known as one of the greatest power forwards of all time and is considered by many to be the greatest European player of all time. In 2023, Nowitzki was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. How much do you know about the former basketball player? In this post, we have details about Dirk Nowitzki’s parents Helga Nowitzki and Jorg Werner. Keep reading to find out more about his mother and father

Dirk Nowitzki Biography

Nowitzki was born on June 19, 1978, in Würzburg, West Germany. Dirk comes from a family of sports personalities. His mother, Helga was a professional basketball player and his father Jörg-Werner was a handball player who represented Germany at the highest international level. His older sister Silke Nowitzki, a local champion in track and field, also became a basketball player and now works for the NBA on International TV.

Dirk Nowitzki Career

At the beginning of his career, Nowitzki played initially played handball and tennis. He managed to become a ranked junior tennis player in the German youth circuit, but because of his height, decided to play basketball. At the age of 15, Dirk joined the local DJK Würzburg. It was here he attracted the attention of former German international basketball player Holger Geschwindner, who spotted his talent immediately and offered to coach him individually two to three times per week.

Dirk Nowitzki started his career at DJK Würzburg from 1994 to 1998. When he first joined the team, DJK played in Germany’s second-tier level league, the Second Bundesliga, South Division. Dirk’s first trainer was Pit Stahl, who played the tall teenager as an outside-scoring forward rather than an inside-scoring centre to utilise his shooting skills. In the next 1995–96 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki established himself as a starter next to Finnish star forward Martti Kuisma and soon became a regular double-digit scorer: after German national basketball coach Dirk Bauermann saw him score 24 points in a DJK game.

From DJK Würzburg, Dirk played for the Dallas Mavericks from 1998 to 2019. In the 2000–01 NBA season, Nowitzki further improved his averages, recording 21.8 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. As a sign of his growing importance, he joined team captain Finley as only one of two Mavericks to play and start in all 82 games and had 10 games in which he scored at least 30 points.

Nowitzki became the first Maverick ever to be voted into the All-NBA squads, making the Third Team. In addition, his best friend Nash became a valuable point guard, and with Finley scoring more than ever, pundits took to calling this trio the “Big Three” of the Mavericks.

In the 2005-06 season, Nowitzki paced Dallas to a 60-win season. The team finished with the third-best record in the league behind the defending champion San Antonio Spurs and the defending Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons. On July 23, 2018, Nowitzki re-signed with the Mavericks for the 2018–19 season.

With his season debut on December 13, 2018, he set the NBA record for the most seasons played with the same team (21), breaking a tie with Kobe Bryant, who spent 20 seasons with the Lakers. He also became the fifth player in NBA history to play 21 seasons, tying an NBA record. Nowitzki was named to his 14th All-Star game as a special team roster addition.

In his personal life, Dirk is married to Jessica Olsson. Jessica Olsson and her husband, Dirk met for the first time and became friends at a charity event that was hosted in the favour of the SEED somewhere in February 2010. After their first meeting, they became acquainted with each other. The couple however made their first-ever appearance in public on the red carpet of the ESPYS Awards

On Valentine’s Day in the year 2012, Jessica and her husband got engaged. Their marriage ceremony took place on 20th July 2012 in front of state District Judge, Craig Smith. The couple went to the Caribbean for their beautiful honeymoon. Then on 8th August 2012, their private wedding took place attended by only close friends and family.

The couple was blessed with a daughter in July 2013 and they named her Malaika. Again, they were blessed with a son whose name was Max on 24th March 2015. Morris is, however, the couple’s last child born on 11th November 2016.