Short answers, pulled from the story.
Dirk Nowitzki was born on the 19th of June 1978 in Würzburg, Germany. 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.
Holger Geschwindner, a former German international basketball player, spotted Nowitzki at fifteen and offered to coach him individually. Geschwindner's unorthodox method emphasized shooting and passing while rejecting weight training and tactical drills, and he also encouraged Nowitzki to play a musical instrument and read literature. Nowitzki later called Geschwindner his best friend.
Nowitzki played his entire 21-year NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, setting the record for the most seasons spent with a single franchise. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks with the ninth pick in 1998 and immediately traded to Dallas, where he remained until his retirement in 2019.
Nowitzki won his only NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, defeating the Miami Heat in six games. He was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. It was the first and only championship in the history of the Mavericks franchise.
Nowitzki holds the NBA record for most seasons played with a single team (21) and most career games played entirely with one franchise (1,522). He was the sixth player in NBA history to score 30,000 regular-season points and the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history. He is also the only non-American player to win the regular-season NBA Most Valuable Player Award, which he received in 2007.
Nowitzki led Germany to a bronze medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship and a silver medal at EuroBasket 2005, winning MVP honors at both tournaments. He scored 3,045 points in 153 games for the senior German national team, the most in the program's history. He was the first German men's player to have his national team jersey retired, receiving that honor in September 2022.