Dirk Nowitzki Net Worth: NBA Salary, Endorsement Deals, Business Ventures, and More

It’s been a while since Dirk Nowitzki was earning an eight-figure salary. An outstanding NBA career of 21 seasons and beyond has built the Dunking Deutschman a net worth estimated at $140 million. What could make that figure multiply? Perhaps a massive contract with the NBA’s new trillionaire media partner. Amazon is making one of its first moves to build its NBA programming with the Mavericks legend. Details are still obscure but it probably won’t be small.

It’s testimony of Nowitzki’s entire career which has been about bold moves. From transitioning from Europe to the NBA to everything he’s doing in his post-NBA life, the Germanator is one of the shining examples of independent NBA success.

From Dream Team beginnings to the NBA

Dirk Nowitzki was born and raised in an athletic family in Würzburg, Germany. His mom and sister too were basketball pros before him. Now his older sister, Silke Nowitzki, works in NBA’s international broadcasting.

As a multi-sport athlete, a teen Dirk got inspired by the Michael Jordan-led 1992 Dream Team and decided to use his height to an advantage by focusing on basketball. He gained attention on the local club level, trained, and ended up with DJK Würzburg in 1994. From there, he gained international notoriety and it opened up opportunities for the NBA.

He had the opportunity to participate in the Nike “Hoop Heroes” Tour where he was playing against the Dream Team icons: prime Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen. Chuckster, the lead scorer of the 1992 gold-winning Team USA, was outscored and posterized by a young Nowitzki. In that moment, Charles Barkley righteously declared him a future NBA star (and it’s probably why Chuck put his money on Nowitzki over the Miami Heat Big 3 in 2011).

More Nike youth leagues led to the 1998 draft. Nowitzki shunned college offers to go prep-to-pro. Nowitzki was selected ninth overall and sent to Dallas by way of Milwaukee. It was a strategically structured trade that gave the Mavericks another offensive talent in Steve Nash.

Dirk Nowitzki got the best of both worlds

Very recently, Dirk Nowitzki was on The Thanalysis Show to talk the difference between European and NBA salaries. He said he used to make a couple of hundred Euros a month during his younger days in Germany. As a top 10 draft pick, Nowitzki was worth a three-year, $4.7 million rookie-scale contract from the Bucks right away. The same deal applied when he went to the Mavs.

Dallas was not a very successful franchise in the ’90s. The first season too had been overwhelming for the 20-year-old. But with the arrival of Mark Cuban as owner, things were looking up. Nowitzki and his teammates were enjoying the perks of the billionaire’s innovative ideas and it translated into their oncourt performance.

Under Cuban’s reign, Nowitzki had his first efficient season. He averaged 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 35.8 minutes in 1999. He nearly won Most Improved Player behind Jalen Rose that year. By his third season, he was ready for a worthy contract extension. In 2001, he signed a four-year, $48 million rookie-scale extension

Before the 2001–02 NBA season, Nowitzki signed a six-year, $90 million contract extension, which made him the second-highest-paid German athlete after Formula One titan Michael Schumacher. Dirk was putting up double digits over 20 points and went from a $1.4 million athlete to $10 million a year. Along with a gradually increasing salary, he won a sweet bonus to go with the 2007 bonus.

In the star-studded free agency market of 2010, Nowitzki briefly broke away from Dallas to re-sign an $80 million contract for four years. But what eluded the Mavericks was the title. With a tough opponent in Miami led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, Nowitzki beat the odds and brought the Larry O’Brien trophy to Dallas for the first time in 2011. Nowitzki was the rightful Finals MVP that series.

In 2014, he’d sign a $25 million deal, which would be one of three contracts with no-trade clauses in NBA history (the other two are LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony). It was followed by two more contracts before he retired in 2019. One of the few NBA players to operate without an agent, Dirk Nowitzki had earned $242 million during his NBA career alone and is counted among the richest NBA players in history.

The Commercial Wunderkind

Forbes ranked a prime Dirk in #56 among the highest paid athletes in the world in 2017. With a career like his, he was the face of multiple brands like Nike, Lufthansa and Panini. Endorsements earned him $1 million a year.

Since retiring, Nowitzki stays connected to the Mavericks as a special advisor. And he’s also monumentalized as a statue in the Mavs arena.

He remained in the US, Dallas to be precise, after retiring. In 2019, his real estate purchase made headlines along with his retirement. Nowitzki dropped $5.8 million on a 2.44 acre property with 11,394 square feet of living space in the same neighborhood as Mark Cuban.

He’s also taken some inspiration from the Shark Tank star to make choice investments. Some of Nowitzki’s known investments are in Austin-based cookie company Tiff’s Treats, which has four Dallas locations, and Los Angeles-based software company Luxury Presence. He also opened a restaurant, Nowitzki, in the DFW Airport.

His next big move will be with Amazon. After sporadic media appearances in recent years, Nowitzki is reportedly close to finalizing his official NBA analyst debut with the new NBA media partner. It remains to be seen what will be the size of Nowitzki’s slice in a $76 billion pie.