Leave it to Dirk Nowitzki to understate the heck out of the obvious.

In his first comments about the new contract he signed last month, Nowitzki made it clear that it's a close, give-and-take relationship with owner Mark Cuban that led him to sign a two-year deal worth $5 million this season with a team option for next year.

To say the least, it's a team-friendly deal -- chump change by today's NBA standards.

"Mark and I obviously have a close, close relationship," Nowitzki said from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he is participating in the NBA's Basketball Without Borders program and will play in NBA Africa Game 2017 on Saturday. "Last year, he really, really took care of me as we all know. That was well-documented.

"And it was my time to show again that I love being here. I gave him a little bit of a deal, maybe."

Maybe?

It's true that if you combine last season and the coming season, Nowitzki will have earned $30 million. That's certainly a competitive NBA salary.

But dropping from $25 million to $5 million turned some heads this summer. And, with the team owning the option for 2018-19, Nowitzki said this coming season, his 20th, still might not be his last.

"Really it's signed for two years," he said. "We'll see how the next year goes and obviously we all know I wanted to end my career there and I'm glad we got to that position now."

Nowitzki, 39, has been traveling in Europe and Africa for most of the past month, visiting his family in Germany and his wife's family in Sweden and Kenya. He arrived in South Africa earlier this week and has been taking part in camps and workouts with other NBA players such as Kristaps Porzingis and C.J. McCollum.

He has not gotten a chance to meet new Mavericks point guard Dennis Smith Jr. But he did hear the reports and see the highlights from the Las Vegas summer league and is excited about the prospects for the team's future, both short- and long-term.

"What an unbelievable athlete he is just playing above the rim, getting in the paint, and finishing," he said. "I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this kid, a lot of fun. It's going to definitely be a piece for us to build with."

Nowitzki said pairing Smith with Harrison Barnes and, he hopes, Nerlens Noel, should give the Mavericks an athletic core that can compete with anybody. The only hitch in that outlook is getting Noel signed to a new contract, which doesn't look like it's going to happen soon.

"We're looking forward to the future and the whole Noel situation is a little unfortunate I think," Nowitzki said. "We traded for him to keep him for the long run. I'm not sure what the latest is there, but I'm hoping that things will work out and he's coming back to the Mavs and we'd have a crew that at times can be very athletic -- when I'm out of the game."

While he's been enjoying the past month since his charity baseball game, Nowitzki has not been blind to what's happening in the NBA. He said the Western Conference "is unbelievable now" with Jimmy Butler and Paul George moving in from Eastern Conference teams. "It's not getting any easier, that's for sure," he said.

He also couldn't give his state of the hoops union without addressing the latest social media controversy about Stephen Curry perhaps mocking LeBron James' selfie video while partying at Barnes' wedding last weekend.

"We're overhyping these things," he said. "We're here to have fun on this world. Steph was just having a good time. Sometimes, we're a little too serious with stuff like that."

Again, king of the understatement.