Not only is tanking not the Mavericks' best option, it's no option at all, franchise icon Dirk Nowitzki says.

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"I'll never stand for losing on purpose. It's not who I am," Nowitzki, 39, told reporters (via The Dallas Morning News) Thursday (AEDT), the same day the NBA announced that Mavs owner Mark Cuban was fined $600,000 for saying on a podcast that his team's "best option" was losing for the rest of the season to improve its lottery position.

Dirk Nowitzki on Mark Cuban's quote about losing being Mavs' best option: "Players never play to lose. It might happen, but you don’t play for it. I still love to compete, that’s 1 big reason why I’m still out there. I’ll never stand for losing on purpose. It’s just not who I am" — Eddie Sefko (@ESefko) February 22, 2018

"The veterans are just going to play hard," said Nowitzki, in his 20th NBA season, all with Dallas. "You can't really play to lose in this league. I've been around too long. We're all competitors. Even the young guys, when you're out there, you got to compete. If you don't, you lose market value, you might get hurt. There's all these things that can happen if you don't play your minutes hard. That's my advice to young guys: Play your minutes hard."

Meanwhile, coach Rick Carlisle — whose team is 18-40, better than only the Suns and Hawks at 18-41 — said he talked to his players and that "we have played with a lot of fight all year long and we will continue to do that. That's how we're going to proceed."