Shaquille O’Neal was replaced by Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki for a special appearance on Inside the NBA. The German sensation wanted to taste the fun of analyzing a game at Studio J, along with Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson. However, he was sadly reminded of a regretful decision he took when he was 18 years old. Barkley made sure he called out Nowitzki for rejecting his offer to take Auburn University to the next level. 

Ahead of Game 1 of the second round between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets, Barkley questioned the Mavericks legend, “Don’t you think if you had went to Auburn like I tried to talk you into, you would have been even more successful?” Nowitzki nodded his head and replied, “I think so, yeah. I think so. But it went well. I went straight from the army, which you didn’t believe at that time.” 

Barkley shared the story of meeting Nowitzki for the first time, “So we take an All-Star team over to Germany. He’s 18. He has got 30 at halftime. We were like, ‘Who’s that dude?’ He finished with like 47. After the game, I walk up to him. I say, ‘Who are you?’ He says, ‘I’m Dirk Nowitzki.’ I said, ‘You want to go to Auburn? I want you to go to Auburn.’ He looked at me with a straight face and said, ‘I gotta go into the army.‘ I said, ‘Dude you are 7ft tall. You’re not going into army.’” 

This is the impression that Nowitzki left at just 18. However, he never went to college. He did not reject Barley’s offer just to join the army. There was another interesting reason behind it. 

Dirk Nowitzki’s reason behind rejecting offers from big-name colleges 

Joining a college in America would have made Nowitzki’s path to the NBA easier. However, the big man had a different perspective. When asked why he skipped college, the Mavericks icon shared in 2022, “I think it was a good decision not to go because at the time, the late 90s, you know, the big guys, the game was still different. I didn’t want to be a center, I didn’t want to all of a sudden go to college, put 20, 30 pounds on me.”

Nowitzki’s game was two-way. We are not speaking defense and offense here. As a 7ft power forward, he was excellent inside the paint, and a better shooter outside it. He was great from the three-point line as well. Nowitzki believes he couldn’t have mastered this if he had gone to college.

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The 2011 champion was one of the first 7-footers in the NBA to have a stellar fadeaway and amusing shooting skills. It looks like his decision to avoid college worked well after all.