DALLAS — The stars were out for the 8th Annual Dirk Nowitzki Foundation Tennis Classic on Saturday, with Steve Nash, DeMarcus Ware, Nowitzki and others in attendance.
Former Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, 2011 NBA Champion Peja Stojaković, and an array of tennis players including John Isner, Sabine Lisicki, Mark Knowles, Tim Smyczek, Benni Becker, Kayla Day and Spencer Papa rounded out the participants. Also at the event were former Dallas Mavericks guard Devin Harris, current team president Masai Ujiri and a handful of Dallas’ broadcast team.
Some Of The Organizations Benefiting From The Event
In addition to the lineup of big names to hit the tennis court, the event featured a silent auction, all benefiting Nowitzki’s foundation and its partners. The foundation was happy to announce a slew of grants given out to various North Texas-based organizations, with Nowitzki himself giving a special shout-out.
“We have the Dallas Tennis Education Academy,” Nowitzki said. “We have For Oak Cliff, that we’ve supported before. They do great work. We have the Boys And Girls Club Of Collin County; we appreciate you guys. We’ve got Klyde Warren Park, who does some great stuff with children down there. We have the Mosaic Family Services. We got The Studio School Of Music. We got the Dallas Leadership Foundation and the Mothers Against Drunk Driving. We support those great organizations with this amazing event.”
Since charity is what this event is all about, Nowitzki also took time to thank the community for its continued growth and buy-in.
“It’s been an amazing turnout. We’re super proud as a foundation to see the growth of the event from year to year,” Nowitzki said. “With more support, more fans, more celebrities, more support from their sponsors. This has been an incredible ride to see the whole eight years and everything that we went through to get to this spot.
“This is our one fundraiser of the year,” Nowitzki continued. “We raise funds that help us then to get through the year to do all the fun stuff that we do with our foundation. Whether that’s food drives for Thanksgiving and Mother’s Day, the hospital appearance we do for Christmas and we also obviously support local charities here in the North Texas metroplex.”
Dirk’s Philanthropy And His Family
When asked about the example he and his philanthropy are setting for his children and other young people in North Texas, Nowitzki emphasized the power of being a good neighbor.
“Obviously, (my children) are growing up extremely blessed, spoiled,” Nowitzki said. “So we want to instill in them early that being part of the community, being a good neighbor, always extending a helping hand is part of what we do as a family and part of how (their mother) Jessica and I grew up, so I think they’re learning. We have them come out to all our events and they’ll be here today.
“We want to show them to be a good neighbor, be a good part of the community and just be good all-around people. We travel a lot with them. We want them to learn other languages, learn new cultures. We don’t want them to just stay in this kind of bubble, so we want them to get out and learn the world and be citizens of the world.”
The Event
Of course, there was also tennis played at the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation Tennis Classic.
Participants were split into Team Dirk and Team Nash, playing sets of doubles and adding up scores through each event. The first of the matches was Nowitzki and Knowles versus Nash and Stojaković, where Nowitzki and Knowles skated by with a 10-7 victory.
Shortly after, a king of the court event was played, which was won by Nash after completing an impressive save through his legs. The rally back was too strong and Nash took his first win of the day.
A few more doubles matches ensued before a basketball hoop was rolled onto the court. There, Mavericks fans got a blast from the past as they watched Nowitzki, Nash and Stojaković get shots up against the other competitors for a game of knockout. Stojaković was the first one eliminated and shortly after Nash knocked Nowitzki out of the competition, Nash secured his second victory.
Later, fans who made $1,000 donations to the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation were invited to the court for an opportunity to return an Isner serve. Nowitzki pledged $15,000 more for each person who could successfully return the serve. In the end, there were as many successful returns as people pegged by Isner’s serves: two.
The day’s last event was a family rivalry. Nowitzki and Nash paired up for a doubles match to take on none other than Max and Morris Nowitzki, Dirk’s sons. Max’s and Morris’ youth won the day, with the sons triumphing over their father, 10-7.
At day’s end, Team Nash defeated Team Nowitzki and a lot of money was raised for great causes.
