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Dirk Nowitzki Explains How He Experienced The Porzingis Trade

On Thursday, the biggest trade of the year hit all of us out of the blue.

The New York Knicks traded Kristaps Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Courtney Lee and Trey Burke to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and two first round draft picks.

Coincidentally, the Mavericks were playing in New York the night before. Kristaps Porzingis was seen talking to Dirk Nowitzki and Luka Doncic, because why wouldn’t he. But given the situation the next day, people thought that they might have already had a feeling about the upcoming trade.

While being a guest at the Lowe Post podcast, Dirk Nowitzki admitted that there were rumblings, but not even he believed the Mavs would be able to get Porzingis. Nowitzki’s overall trade experience is pretty funny:

Zach Lowe: “At the Knicks game there were already sort of rumblings…”

Dirk Nowitzki: “There was rumblings but I didn’t take them serious. To me, there was just no way in heck this was actually going to happen. I didn’t really worry about it. I just said hi to Kristaps – it wasn’t like I went up to him and was like ‘hey, we’re going to get you in a couple days!’ I just said ‘hi,’ and asked him about his knee.

…. If you have a chance to add a young player, a franchise-caliber player… if you have a chance to add one, you’ve got to do it. Obviously he’s coming off a serious injury, but the kid’s what, 23 years old? I think the sky is still the limit. He’s a hard worker. Hopefully his knee is great and we’ll have a lot of fun.”

“I thought there was no way in heck this was going to happen. I guess talks were heating up a little bit earlier in the afternoon, and I was still like ‘there’s no way,’ so I took my nap. Didn’t worry about it, just thought there was no, zero chance to make a big, blockbuster deal like that. And then I actually set my alarm for about 4, 4:15, and I missed the whole thing. By the time I woke up, I had a million texts… I was in shock that it actually happened.”

Transcript via USA TODAY Sports’ FTW.

Lowe Post podcast: the one and only @swish41 (Dirk Nowitzki) on the Porzingis trade, Luka, the highs and lows of his career, one more All-Star, so much more https://t.co/FP3qxqM5g5

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) February 1, 2019