“We opened up the game to the world, so that’s why all these guys are playing in the NBA today.” Magic Johnson spoke to BBC News about the influence of the Dream Team on the NBA. He wasn’t wrong because a 14-year-old, Dirk Nowitzki, became a fan of Charles Barkley from that team. The Mavericks legend even wanted to honor his favorite player, but his former teammate didn’t budge.

“So I played with #14 in Germany, and I saw Charles Barkley wear #14 in the Olympics in 92 in Barcelona. I loved Charles at the time as well, actually, I was going to take #14 in Dallas.” Dirk Nowitzki continued, “But Robert Pack, at the time, had #14, and he didn’t want to give the number up to a rookie. So I ended up flipping the numbers, and it became #41. ”

NBA History uploaded the video on X and wrote “Dirk tells the story about why he wanted to wear #14 originally 💯.” Interestingly, for his national team, Germany, Nowitzki kept the number 14 and achieved success with the team. In his 153 international games, he was instrumental in the team’s second place at the EuroBasket 2005. And previously helped the team in third place at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2002. For both of those events, he was awarded MVPs.

In the year 2022, the Dallas Mavericks and the German basketball federation retired both his numbers #41 and #14, respectively. The respect between Charles Barkley and Dirk Nowitzki has always been mutual. On the Club Shay Shay podcast in 2022, credited the former Champion for being the greatest foreign player. But that’s not all.

Charles Barkley even tried to recruit an 18-year-old Nowitzki, but it was not for the NBA team. “Yo man, who the hell are you?” Barkley said on the Club Shay Shay podcast. “He’s got that thick German [accent], ‘My name is Dirk Nowitzki. I’m 18.'” However, the response from the German caught Chuck by surprise.

Charles Barkley failed to recruit Dirk Nowitzki because of the German army

That’s not the first time the 76ers legend has narrated that story. Earlier this year, in May, Dirk Nowitzki appeared on Inside the NBA show. Chuck recalled the story once story again. “I said, you’re 18? You wanna go to Auburn? Can I get your information? I want you to go to Auburn.’ He looked at me with a straight face and says, ‘I gotta go to the army.'”

Charles Barkley was resilient and did not believe that the Mavs legend would serve in the army. “I said, ‘Dude, you’re 7 feet tall, you’re not going in the army.'” But Dirk once explained that in Germany, it was mandatory for a while to actually enroll in the army. And for a few months, he was part of the program. Eventually, it all played out for him as he entered the league, skipping college altogether.

“It was fun to basically compete against some of my heroes,” the 14x All-Star explained on Shaq’s podcast. Dirk also revealed that joining any college team in America would have meant he had to play in the position of Center and gain extra pounds. But he always wanted to play as a forward and is currently ranked #6 in the all-time scorers list.

“Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.”