Who remembers Dirk Nowitzki?
Rhetorical question.
In Germany, of course, most people haven't forgotten who he is: the greatest player in the history of German basketball.
On Thursday, when the European Basketball Championship started in Cologne, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dealt very directly with Dirk Nowitzki in a speech.
"Your hero status," said Steinmeier in the arena in Cologne, where the German Basketball Federation, in the presence of Nowitzki, had his jersey number 14 pulled under the roof of the hall, "is undiminished three years after the end of your career.
Remaining a hero in the eyes of the public is not enough through sporting success – heart and character must also be added.”
When, please, has one heard a Federal President rave about an athlete who doesn't come from the national sport of football?
After that, Nowitzki was allowed to speak.
And it told the truth about him that in his speech he spoke about most of his fellow campaigners, but not about one: himself.