Jul 20, 2010

News: Nowitzki will miss World Championship

Germany will not count on its superstar for the upcoming World Championship in late August. The Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki finally revealed his decision and canceled his participation in the tournament. The reason is simple: after signing a four-year extension with the NBA team, the 32-year-old wants to take the summer to focus on preparations with a team that will have new faces. Nowitzki is confident that the youngsters in the national team will get the job done, same as coach Dirk Bauermann, who immediately respected the decision. However, Nowitzki already assured he'll take part in next year's Eurobasket in Lithuania.
This is will be the second consecutive international tournament the forward will miss, as last year he also failed Eurobasket. German-American centre Chris Kaman is also likely to skip the tournament, as he always made it depend on the decision of the forward.
The 2010 World Championship is being hit by several withdrawals, namely those of superstars Pau Gasol (Spain), Kobe Bryant and LeBron James (USA), Manu Ginóbili (Argentina), Tony Parker (France), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia) Mehmet Okur (Turkey) and Andrew Bogut (Australia), among others.


Source: spiegel.de

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