The Great Nowitzki

Basketball and the Meaning of Life

Thomas Pletzinger

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Hardback

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English

WW Norton & Co
13 May 2022

Biography: sport; Basketball

The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the great players in basketball history. With a devastating fadeaway and unexpected agility, the Dallas Mavericks superstar helped to pioneer the modern three-shooting game and became a global ambassador for the sport. Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger traveled with Nowitzki for more than seven years, seeking the secret of his success and longevity. In novelistic detail, Pletzinger tells the dramatic story of how a lanky kid from the German suburbs became a top-five all-time scorer and NBA champion. He profiles the revolutionary training methods developed by Holger Geschwindner, Dirk's enigmatic mentor and coach, whose philosophical insights on performance, creativity, and freedom shaped Dirk's game.

A masterpiece of sports journalism and a work of personal obsession-akin to John McPhee's A Sense of Where You Are and David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game-The Great Nowitzki brims with a fan's passion and offers an intimate portrait of an iconic performer.

(Translated by Shane Anderson)

By: Thomas Pletzinger
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 163mm, Spine: 38mm
Weight: 791g
ISBN: 9781324003052
ISBN 10: 1324003057
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 13 May 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print

Thomas Pletzinger is an award-winning German novelist, screenwriter, and basketball fanatic. He has won fellowships and teaching positions at the University of Iowa, New York University, and Grinnell College. He lives in Berlin with his wife and three daughters.

Reviews for The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life

"""All the hours in the gym, all the defeats and victories, all the stories and memories - it takes an author like Thomas Pletzinger to find the right words for my world and my game. I couldn't have wished for a better one."" -- Dirk Nowitzki ""Pletzinger brings a sense of curiosity and discovery to the story of his German countryman…. He gains his subject’s trust early and carries it through to the finish, after all the cheers have died out and Dirk Nowitzki assumes his full-time role as down-to-earth dude."" -- Chris Vognar - Texas Monthly ""A meticulously observed, impassioned assessment of Nowitzki’s significance as a basketball player."" -- Kirkus Reviews ""Nowitzki’s army of fans will devour this well-crafted account of a great player and a decent human being, and other hoops loved will come away happy to have better made his acquaintance."" -- Jim Burns - Library Journal ""[The Great Nowitzki] works not just as biography but as a story of sporting fame and fandom. Of the symbiotic relationship between a superstar and his city, country and the broad range of people touched by his feats of sporting greatness… [E]ngrossing, engaging and special."" -- AllSportsBooks.Reviews"