It is a fact that is mostly forgotten when talking about the great Dirk Nowitzki. Not many people know that the Milwaukee Bucks were the ones who selected the German big man at the 1998 NBA Draft as the ninth pick overall. The Bucks, however, traded him to the Dallas Mavericks in a transaction that got Milwaukee Robert “Tractor” Traylor.
In a recent guest appearance on Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s podcast, The Thanalysis Show, Nowitzki said that he would have loved suiting up for the Bucks if he wasn’t traded to the Mavs.
“I think Milwaukee would have been great,” Nowitzki shared (h/t Christopher Kuhagen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
When Antetokounmpo reminded Nowitzki that he would have fit right in, given the city’s rich German culture, Nowitzki, whose family still loves in Germany, agreed.
“A lot of bratwursts,” Nowitzki joked. “I think Milwaukee would have been fun. Being in Dallas, I enjoyed my time. It’s my new home. I still live there. It ended up working out for me. But I think Milwaukee would have been fun.”
One can only imagine what kind of career Nowitzki would have had and what success could the Bucks attained had they kept Nowitzki.
It all turned out to be just fine for Nowitzki. With Dallas, he built a Basketball Hall of Fame-worthy career. He scored 31,560 points while wearing Mavs colors and won an NBA championship in 2011 when he led Dallas to an NBA Finals win over LeBron James and the Miami Heat. He never played for another NBA team, sticking with the Mavericks until his retirement at the end of the 2018-19 NBA season.
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