In theory, Dirk Nowitzki should’ve always been a max player for the Mavs, and it should be that way until the day he retires. He’s meant that much to the organization. But Dirk has willingly taken less money along the way, in hopes that Mark Cuban would use that extra cash to recapture what they had in 2011. That hasn’t exactly been the case in a while.
In fact, it has been reported that, by Dirk not demanding the max each time he was eligible, he forfeited upwards of $70 million throughout the course of his career. But don’t shed a tear over his checking account balance, because he isn’t.
He just signed a 2-year deal last month to remain with the team, and according to Mark Cuban, he’s paying Dirk more than what he asked for.
“Dirk wasn’t even in the country and people couldn’t even reach him when free agency started,” Cuban told us. “I basically told him, look, you tell me the price and it actually started lower. His agent said ‘how about this much’ and we said ‘we’ll have a little more money, we’ll give you more’ and as the numbers started getting bigger and bigger, it was like ‘what about this number?’ ‘We’ll give you more.’ Finally, it was like ‘this is what we got left, take it!’
H/T: CBS Radio
