Can you imagine Dirk Nowitzki in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform? Or even in the Houston Rockets' red? Well it was a possibility up until July 3 before the former MVP agreed to a three-year $30 million contract to stay with the Mavericks.
Nowitzki was offered maximum contracts from both the Lakers and the Rockets shortly after free agency began, according to sources close to ESPN. Such a deal would have earned the 16-year veteran at least $20.7 million annually depending on the duration of the contract. Interestingly enough, Nowitzki, just this afternoon, surrendered $5 million of his current contract to make room for newcomer free agent Chandler Parsons.
As a restricted free agent, Parsons signed an offer sheet from the Mavericks last week for three years and $46 million. His incumbent team, the Houston Rockets, had three days to match the offer or else Parsons would be headed to Dallas. The Rockets announced this weekend that they would not match the offer, so the fourth year small forward will now be a Maverick, but in order to make room for him under the salary cap, somebody needed to give up money in their contract for Parsons.
That man was Dirk Nowitzki. His deal is now for three years and a paltry $25 million (for a player of his caliber). But he, unlike many other players in the league, understands that it's hard to build a championship-contending team when the front office is handicapped with one player taking up 30%-40% of the salary cap (see Bryant, Kobe). Nowitzki also took a pay cut in his last contract with the team when he signed a four-year $80 million deal when he was eligible for $96 million. The year he signed that contract he and the Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
"[Cuban] knows I don't want to go anywhere and he doesn't want me to go anywhere," Nowitzki recently said of the Mavericks owner to ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM. "This deal is not going to be about squeezing out the last dollar. We'll just have to wait and see what the years and the final number is, but I'm sure it will be respectable for both sides."
The agreement simply shows Nowitzki is a man of the people and wants his team to succeed. The addition of Chandler Parsons will provide a significant upgrade to the Mavericks roster, but they'll have a lot of new faces this upcoming season, so we'll see how coach Rick Carlisle handles the team.
You can read more about Dirk Nowitzki's contract in this Yahoo! Sports article.
