Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant were two pillars of 2000s basketball, with both crossing paths regularly in the Western Conference on rival teams.
Despite their on-court battles, Kobe Bryant wanted to recruit Dirk Nowitzki to LA late in their respective careers. Dirk, out of his loyalty to the Dallas Mavericks, chose to stay with the team. That is something that Dirk feels made Kobe respect him even more.
“I was honored to get the call from Kobe. I have never made it a big secret, I was a big Kobe Bryant fan. To me, he’s still the best player I’ve ever played against in my career. It was super cool to get that call from him but I think he respected me almost more when I said, ‘Listen, I’ve been here so long. I want to finish my career here.’ That’s what I ended up doing and I am glad I did. Even though there were some tough years down the stretch in Dallas where things weren’t going well. But that’s a part of it, you can’t only be in there in the good times.”
"To me, he's still the best player I've ever played against in my career… I think he respected me almost more when I said, 'Listen, I've been here so long. I want to finish my career here.'"
Dirk Nowitzki on Kobe Bryant recruiting him to join the Lakerspic.twitter.com/pYYgrte2nw
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 21, 2023
Kobe and Dirk spent decades as rivals in the Western Conference but only met in the playoffs once in all those years. That came during Dallas’ magical 2011 run where they won the title, ending the Lakers’ bid to 3-peat with a vicious 4-0 sweep in the second round.
In the regular season, though, Kobe’s Lakers beat Dallas 32 times, whereas Dirk just managed to pick up 17 regular season wins over the Lakers in that era.
The Longest-Serving Franchise Players In League History
Up until this season, Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant were the only two players to have spent 20+ years with one franchise. Kobe was the first to the accomplishment when he retired in 2016 after 20 seasons in LA. Dirk was drafted a couple of years after Kobe, so he retired after playing 21 seasons for Dallas in 2019.
Udonis Haslem is joining the two on this list of 20-year single-team veterans, retiring at the end of this season after spending two decades with the Miami Heat. It’s hard to be as loyal to a franchise as these players have been to theirs, and that was bound to generate mutual respect between Dirk and Kobe when they got older.
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