Nowitzki laughs at idea of being traded to LA

In a Los Angeles Daily News column, Dirk Nowitzki was asked about the possibility of joining his good friend Steve Nash and the Lakers. (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

By Jon Machota
FOXSportsSouthwest.com Special Contributor

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January 10, 2013

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It's strange to imagine the season when Dirk Nowitzki no longer wears a Dallas Mavericks jersey, the only uniform he has donned during his 15 NBA seasons.

But what is even more bizarre is the possibility of seeing Nowitzki wearing another team's colors. It only seems right that the face of the Dallas franchise finishes his professional career with the team he led to its only league title.

A Wednesday column in the Los Angeles Daily News suggests otherwise.

According to the piece written by Vincent Bonsignore, Nowitzki was asked Wednesday about the possibility of joining his good friend Steve Nash as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I mean honestly, I'd never allow myself to even think about something like that," Nowitzki said, laughing.

When reminded how Nash said the same thing about playing for the Lakers last summer, Nowitzki responded: "It's funny how business works."

Bonsignore suggests a Nowitzki for Dwight Howard trade. Howard, who is a free agent at the end of the season, is someone the Mavericks are certainly interested in, however, probably not in exchange for Nowitzki.

With the Mavericks and Lakers both struggling, a move is possible, but adding a 34-year-old to an already aging Lakers squad doesn't seem to be the missing piece, especially on a team struggling to play adequate defense.

During a taped interview that aired during the Mavericks' 99-93 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers Wednesday night, Nowitzki told the ESPN cameras that he'd like to end his career in Dallas.

"Ultimately, my goal was always to finish my career in Dallas," Nowitzki said. "The only way I was going to leave was if we wouldn't have won a championship and I would have been chasing my last two years or whatever like (Gary) Payton and (Karl) Malone did when they went to the Lakers and joined Kobe and Shaq. Something like that, maybe I could have seen myself doing at the end. But since I got that ring now, I think I'm going to finish my career in Dallas.

"But I obviously do want to be competitive my last couple of years and I do want to play not for the 8 seed. Saying all that, I've got this year left and next year (left on my contract), so hopefully we can still make a push here this season and get something going this summer and be competitive again."