The Great Nowitzki

December 13, 2021
With the intensity and focus of a point guard, sportswriter and novelist Pletzinger (Funeral for a Dog) chronicles the career of 14-time All-Star basketball pro Dirk Nowitzki, “one of the best players in American sports.” Drawing on interviews with Nowitzki’s family, friends, and former teammates, Pletzinger traces his subject’s story, from his youth as “a scrawny kid” in Germany to his remarkable 21 years playing for the Dallas Mavericks. In 1993, upon meeting the then-16-year-old, German former pro basketball player Holger Geschwinder recalls noticing how Nowitzki, at a mere six feet, eight inches, ran circles around the taller players: “The game like water for him.” (Geschwinder became Nowitzki’s mentor and went on to accompany him throughout his career with the Mavericks after he was drafted in 1998.) As Pletzinger offers nimble recaps of Nowitzki’s games—including the Mavericks’ 2011 world championship—the basketball star emerges as a stoic and philosophical player devoted to the game (“Home crowds loved Nowitzki; opposing fans feared him”). What sets this account apart from other sports biographies, though, is Pletzinger’s visceral love for his subject: “His triumphs made me happy, his failures seemed excusable. Somehow, his victories were my own.” This is sure to be a slam dunk with hoops fans.

February 1, 2022

The Dallas Mavericks' seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki could work in the paint and close with his unstoppable fadeaway, then on the next possession effortlessly drill a 25-foot three. This skill set made him one of basketball's first do-it-all "unicorns." Add his reliance on a free-thinking personal coach equally versed in arcane basketball statistics and methods, and Nowitzki becomes a pivotal player for the Mavs' defense, writes novelist Pletzinger (Funeral for a Dog). Nowitzki's German nationality made him a legend to European fans of the NBA and to the German Pletzinger, whose book is the result of a years-long quest to find what made Nowitzki tick. The biography charts Nowitzki's career from Bavarian kid, to 2007 NBA MVP, to leader of the 2011 league title Mavericks, to retiree (in 2019, after 21 years in the NBA). VERDICT Nowitzki's army of fans will devour this well-crafted account of a great player and a decent human being, and other hoops lovers will come away happy to have better made his acquaintance.--Jim Burns

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2022
How a skinny German kid became one of the best basketball players of all time. In a book translated and "edited with an American readership in mind," journalist and novelist Pletzinger explores the improbable emergence of Dirk Nowitzki (b. 1979) as an NBA superstar. The author follows Nowitzki's early development in the town of W�rzburg, his experiences in international basketball as an adolescent and young man, and his 21 seasons as a member of the Dallas Mavericks (he retired in 2019). The author had extraordinary access to Nowitzki during the last few years of his career, and he presents much of the material as a firsthand observer who often traveled with the Mavericks and was as much a fan as a journalist. This vantage makes possible some intriguing behind-the-scenes commentary, as in the extensive discussions of Nowitzki's intense and sometime unorthodox training methods or his unguarded reactions to assorted highs and lows during his final years as a player. Pletzinger also draws on a host of insider contacts, including other NBA stars such as Steve Nash and Peja Stojakovic, to fill out his descriptions of his subject's impact on the game as one of the first 7-footers who could move with agility and shoot extremely well. However, the author's enthusiasm for every detail of his subject's professional life occasionally feels maudlin and tedious, and the narrative meanders inexplicably in the last 100 pages or so. Though the eccentric philosophizing of Nowitzki's longtime coach and mentor, Holger Geschwindner, is summarized at some length, credible insights into "the meaning of life," as promised in the book's subtitle, remain elusive. Still, Pletzinger makes a strong case for Nowitzki's status as a transformative player. Nowitzski, he writes, "revolutionized his position....He shot the ball better than anyone else his size. He changed his sport--basketball after Dirk Nowitzki is a different game than it was before him--more variable, smarter and more creative." A meticulously observed, impassioned assessment of Nowitzki's significance as a basketball player.

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December 9, 2022
The casual sports fan might ask, Why a thick biography with a pretentious title about a European dude who won a lone NBA championship, playing his career in the shadows of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, and Shaquille O'Neal? Because Dirk Nowitzki changed the game, maybe forever--a seven-footer with a guard's ball-handling skills, draining three-pointers from anywhere on the court. And also because his career stats are jaw-dropping: the sixth-highest scorer in NBA history (31,560 points) and one of the league's all-time deadliest three-point shooters, defensive rebounders, and free throw shooters. Playing 1,522 games over 21 seasons, all with the Dallas Mavericks, Nowitzki was also among the game's most durable players. German journalist Pletzinger spent years observing and interviewing his subject, before and after games, at Nowitzki's home, in limousines and restaurants and hotel rooms, all over the world. And he spent considerable time with those closest to Nowitzki: his family, teammates, coaches, and, most critically, the player's longtime life mentor and hoops guru, Holger Geschwindner. The result is an eyewitness biography fully deserving of its illustrious subject.

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