Living the American dream, international basketball superstar Dirk Nowitzki wants to return to Germany upon his retirement from the NBA. Würzburg is where Dirk’s dream was born, although basketball didn’t necessarily interest him at first. He initially thought of basketball as a women’s sport; his mother and sister were players. Nor did he want to become a handball player like his father.

As a kid, Dirk decided to imitate German tennis giant Boris Becker. Dirk even got a haircut like Boris, but at the Bavarian Youth Championships in Lindau, Dirk lost out in tennis. At age twelve, he was growing taller and taller, with local doctors predicting a final height of 7 feet. Teachers led Dirk to basketball, and at age 14, Dirk became enamored with the Dream Team: Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird and Scottie Pippen. As he saw their glory, Dirk decided he wanted to be where they were, in the NBA.

When ex-German national team player Holger Geschwindner first noticed Dirk in 1993, he asked Nowitzki if becoming a basketball star in Germany would be good enough, or whether he wanted to play with the best of them internationally. Nowitzki took Geschwinder up on his offer to help train him as a prospective professional. Their work together continued for a few years, and to this day, Dirk still credits Geschwinder for turning his life around.

In the summer of 1998, Dirk’s American dream became reality: Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson, came to Würzburg. Nelson took Nowitzki back to Dallas and the rest is history. In America, he sometimes misses the “narrow alleyways” of Würzburg’s Old Town, and “my mother’s stuffed cabbage.” He spends his summer vacation at home, mainly with his family, where, he says, he finds “tranquility.” “My true home is and remains Würzburg,” Nowitzki said.