Chris Anstey: Dirk Nowitzki’s beautiful gesture to my daughter sums up genuine NBA icon

By the time she was 11, she had heard a few of my ‘dad stories’ and seen my excitement following the Dallas Mavericks’ journey to their inaugural NBA championship in 2011. But Izzy had also started to carve out her own basketball career.

Two years after playing her first representative game as a top-age Under-12 (10 years old, turning 11), Izzy was selected in her first Victorian team. Another two years later, she was selected to represent Australia at the Under-16 Asian Championships in India.

Yet a month before the Australian team was due to depart, Izzy took a charge in a game, landed awkwardly and sustained a tiny vertebrae fracture. She was forced to withdraw from the team a week before the tournament.

Izzy was devastated. She had just missed out on her first, and possibly only, chance to represent her country.

Many family and friends encouraged her to continue to find positives while she watched her teammates online. She could finish her school year without distraction. She could commit to the gym every day without the need to train or play games. She could do her nails. She even got a henna tattoo on one of her hands.

Unfortunately, the joy she felt for her teammates when they won gold only added to her sadness of missing out on such an incredible experience. Her smiles remained few and far between. Izzy’s welfare came up in concerned conversations with family and friends quite a bit over the following weeks.

*****

One morning, not long after the tournament, a plain brown package addressed to Izzy arrived on my doorstep. I hadn’t ordered her anything and Izzy didn’t have a credit card to order anything online. I flipped over the parcel with curiosity to see where it had come from.

Handwritten in the sender section on the back of the parcel: D. Nowitzki, and his home address in Dallas.

Izzy was staying with her mum that week but I knew she was at the gym that morning. I didn’t want to wait until the end of the week to give her the parcel and put a smile on her face, so I got straight in my car and headed to Body World. I arrived as she was finishing her workout and handed her the package.

Her look of puzzlement changed to excitement the second she flipped the parcel over and saw who it was from. I took out my phone to film her opening an authentic Dirk Nowitzki Dallas Mavericks singlet. It was signed with a message to Izzy, encouraging her to keep working.

Izzy’s outlook towards her injury changed the moment she pulled Dirk’s jersey over her head. She felt special.

People often ask me to tell them a story about Dirk Nowitzki, a player who changed how forwards and centres play the game, on the way to sixth-place all-time among NBA scorers. This is the story I tell. A story about the man rather than the player.

I was the father whose daughter who needed a boost and got it from a kind gesture, one that simply said, ‘I spent some time thinking about you and your situation and hoped I could help a little’. I tell the story of an old teammate who didn’t allow fame to change him.

*****

So Dirk remained Izzy’s favourite basketball player. Daylight was second.

Perhaps with some help from Dirk’s morale-booster, Izzy made the team for the Under-17 World Cup the following year and has represented Australia at each major junior tournament since, winning a silver medal at the Under-19 World Cup in Thailand in 2019.

Like many of her teammates, Izzy’s development attracted a lot of attention from colleges in the United States and she decided to pursue a basketball career. She narrowed her choices down to five colleges and we set an itinerary in September 2019 to make official visits to each.

The five schools – South Carolina, Miami, Michigan, TCU and UCLA – had shoehorned tours, excursions, meetings and meals into every waking hour of the 48 they were allowed on each of Izzy’s visits. Although tiring, it was a lot of fun, especially for Izzy.

Having completed three visits in eight days, we checked in for our flight from Detroit to Dallas-Fort Worth. I watched Izzy slump into a plastic chair, taking the opportunity to switch off. I knew she was tired but I wanted to make the most of returning to Dallas, where I spent two seasons with the Mavericks and still had friends.

‘“Hey, once we’ve checked into our hotel in Fort Worth, why don’t we get an Uber across to Dallas?’ I said to her. “I’d really like to show you where I lived, drive you around a little bit and meet up with a mate for a while.”

“Nah, I think I’ll just stay in my room,” Izzy mumbled, “and get room service.”

When we got to our hotel, I gave it another try.

“I’d really like to show you where I spent two years of my life before you were born and introduce you to a mate of mine,” I said. “I think you’ll like him. It would mean a lot to me to take my daughter out for the night.”

‘“Nah, I’m OK, thanks,” she said, unmoved. “I’m going to stay in my room, use the Wi-Fi to send some messages and watch Netflix.”

There is a life lesson I learned a long time ago. We miss out on so many great moments and experiences because we cannot be bothered committing to an idea we are unsure of. We anticipate the experience being average, so we say ‘no’. Saying no is easier for a lot of people and becomes a habit.

A big part of me wanted to teach Izzy that lesson that night. I compromised, quietly committing to teaching her on the drive home from an experience I knew she’d never forget.

“That’s a pity,” I said, Izzy still opting for Wi-Fi and Netflix. “Dirk was really looking forward to meeting you.”

I have never seen a pair of eyes light up more quickly, nor a more genuine look of amazement.

“So, I’ll meet you in the lobby in 15 minutes then?”

Izzy had showered, done her make-up and was waiting for me, immaculately dressed, 12 minutes later. She was a different person to the one who trudged into the lobby just 30 minutes earlier.

If Izzy’s eyes were bright before we left, they were near sparkling when she heard Dirk’s voice through the intercom at his place, then when she wandered up to his door and saw him waiting to greet her.

She actually touched him on her way inside the house, to make sure he was real.

Izzy got a night of hanging out with her idol and listening to his stories. She asked about basketball and learned more in a few hours than I could ever teach her. She learned about the work Dirk does for underprivileged children in Dallas and around the world, work that not enough people know about.

She got to just ‘be’ in a room with Dirk as he drank a few beers and told stories with her old man. She comfortably asked questions and told stories of her own, soaking up a night she will always remember.

Of all the amazing experiences Izzy had that fortnight in the US – before eventually committing to play at UCLA – meeting Dirk remains her favourite. Again, daylight second.

Yet the thing was, she had no idea what she was going to miss out on when she first declined my offer to catch up with a mate.

I was left wondering how many other things she, and all of us, miss out on through our lives when we are too tired, uninspired, or just could not be bothered to do something.

The world is filled with amazing places to see and incredible people to meet, if we choose to ask ourselves ‘why not?’ instead of ‘why?’

You don’t get those experiences sitting on a couch watching Netflix.

Dirk Nowitzki

2011 NBA Championship

2011 NBA Finals MVP

2007 NBA Most Valuable Player

14x NBA All-Star

4x NBA All-First Team

31,560 points (sixth all-time*)

Izzy Anstey’s idol

*As of January 2021