The Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger

Author:Thomas Pletzinger [Pletzinger, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Another kind of pressure: what other people say, what they think, and how to retain control over your own story. Over the years, Dirk Nowitzki has maintained a healthy distance from the commentaries and criticisms that he receives after every game and every public appearance. He also keeps praise and cheers at a distance. But that’s also something he would have to learn the hard way.

On May 5, 2009, Dirk’s personal life suddenly becomes public. This is because a woman whose real name is unknown at first—Crystal Taylor, Cristal Ann Taylor, Christian Julie Wellington, etc. (the Dallas Morning News later lists 24 aliases)—is arrested at his house. The Mavericks are playing a playoff game in Denver, so Dirk isn’t home when the police pull up and try to talk to the woman who allegedly lives there. The police have received a tip. They have questions, but the woman reportedly doesn’t want to answer them. Does she have any form of identification? Is she the same person they have been looking for? With outstanding warrants in two different states? Is she who she claims to be? Does Dirk know?

The woman asks to be allowed to change and then come to the station with the officers—at least, that is how the papers will summarize the events of that particular operation. The police have good reason to believe that she is a wanted fraudster, and when she tries to escape through the bathroom window, they have already called for backup. And as these things go, somebody has been listening in on the backup call—legally or illegally, who knows—and even before the backup arrives, the cameras and floodlights are there. A helicopter, too.

The two of them met years earlier, via a random phone call—sorry, wrong number, if you can believe it—but they didn’t become a couple until some years later. But at some point, there was skepticism in Dirk’s inner circle; something didn’t totally seem right. She would not travel to Europe—there were always excuses and unspecified commitments, there was always something.

The standard vetting performed in the circles around NBA players didn’t come up with anything. There was nothing suspicious to be found under the names she used. But a lingering sense of doubt led to further investigations, which unearthed something that seems totally absurd in Dirk’s world, a system strongly based on authenticity, trust and intimacy: the woman apparently had a number of identities and was being sought by the police. At first, Nowitzki couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Which seems sensible. It would probably be more precise if I said it’s totally devastating for him. It shakes Dirk to the core. He mulls and broods and worries for a couple of days, and then the Mavericks play in the second round of the 2009 playoffs in Denver.

Dirk has led a relationship with this woman over the last months and years. There are many variations and speculations about her names and her past. It may be the most public and speculative phase

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