DALLAS — Dirk Nowitzki said Saturday that his friendship with Steve Nash went from super hot to very cold after Nash left the Dallas Mavericks. He said it has since turned super hot again. Nowitzki now calls Nash one of his best friends.
Both spoke before the eighth annual Dirk Nowitzki Foundation Tennis Classic at Banner House at T Bar M. Nash captained the team opposite Nowitzki’s for another year.
Dallas acquired both players on the night of the 1998 NBA Draft. They were teammates until 2004. That summer, Nash left for the Phoenix Suns as a free agent. He won MVP there in 2005 and 2006, and Nowitzki won it in 2007.
Dirk Nowitzki On Steve Nash Friendship Cooling After Phoenix
The first couple of times the two had dinner the night before a Mavericks-Suns game, neither wanted to talk about the game.
“I think it went from super hot to very cold, super hot again,” Nowitzki said. “There was a phase when he left us where things were a little chilly. We were competitors. And at the beginning, the first couple times when he was in Phoenix, [we] went to dinner the night before, and then we’re like, ‘This is super awkward. We don’t really want to talk about the game.’ So there was a time where we didn’t talk that much. Obviously, we always stayed friendly, but there was a little bit of a colder period.”
“But at the beginning, obviously, we were super tight. We were living in the same apartment complex,” Nowitzki continued. “He was here new. I was here new. I didn’t know anybody, so we just started hanging out and started to form a great friendship. And [he] helped me so much because he played with Phoenix for two years before, so he kind of knew how everything works, how the traveling goes, how you prepare your body. So I learned so much from him the first couple years, and then of course he left for greater things.”
Phoenix drafted Nash 15th overall in 1996. He spent two seasons there before Dallas traded for him.
Retirement brought them back together through family trips and tennis tournaments. Both now work on Amazon Prime Video’s NBA studio show, which is based in Los Angeles.
“And then we really reconnected in retirement more and more, start traveling together with our families. He got into tennis, which was obviously a love of mine, so we travel a lot for tennis tournaments, and now we work together, obviously, which is great,” Nowitzki added. “We obviously both don’t live in LA, so we fly out to LA the night before. We do dinners. We play tennis. We have a lot of brunch together. It’s like all of the early 2000s all over again. So it’s been super fun reconnecting with him like that again. And he’s one of my best friends.”
Nash entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. Nowitzki followed in 2023.
Steve Nash On Dirk Nowitzki Friendship And Their Tennis Rivalry
Nash said nothing he took from his playing career is more valuable than the relationship. Their families are like family to each other.
“Well, first, yes, I am sick of Dirk. We [spend] entirely way too much time together,” Nash said. “But it’s been an incredible journey to play with someone in very impressionable, formative years in the league together, to both kind of persevere and build careers for ourselves, and then be friends and family friends for life. That means a lot. From your career, you take certain things, but nothing’s more valuable than the relationship. So to have that friendship, and our families be like family, is an amazing gift from our careers.”
“And then yeah, I love playing sports,” Nash continued. “So for me to keep moving is paramount, just for my mental health and sanity. So whether I’m playing pickup tennis, and [I’ve] always played soccer, and try to stay in shape, just more so for my mental health and just feeling good and enjoying my days. So I don’t drive my wife crazy every day by being a basket case.”
Nash’s team won last year’s Classic. On Wednesday, Nowitzki told 105.3 The Fan that Nash beats up on him every year and that it was time to set the record straight.
Nash knows Nowitzki hates losing to him.
“Yes, yes, my team won last year,” Nash said. “I’m going to be very interested to see the team lineups. If I see, like, Isner, Becker, and Lisicki all on the same team, I’m going to say, like, ‘This is some BS, Dirk.’ We [need to] have some kind of parity in the field here.”
“But he’s a competitor. I know he hates it when I win,” Nash continued. “So I’m sure there’s gonna be every opportunity for his team to get a chance to get over the line this year.”
The Classic is one of the few times the two still compete against each other.
“It’s the most fun for us. I think we don’t get to do this very often,” Nash said. “And so although it is for fun and it is for charity, and it’s a great event that we all come here to support because of the cause, once you get out there, we do like to give each other a hard time and try to win and make each other look bad. So it’s a lot of fun.”
The Classic is the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation’s one fundraiser of the year. Last year’s edition raised more than $1 million.
