BEIJING (China) - Former German national team and NBA superstar Dirk Nowitzki has been appointed as Chair of the Players Commission on Saturday at the first FIBA Central Board meeting for the new term. With this appointment, he also becomes a member of the 25-member FIBA Central Board.

Nowitzki has had an illustrious playing career for Germany and consistently was a star performer at numerous FIBA tournaments for more than 15 years. He led his country to its best-ever result at a FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2002, finishing in third place, the nation's only podium finish at the world level. He also led Germany's run to the Final of FIBA EuroBasket in 2005, finishing in second place.

In 2011, after leading the Dallas Mavericks to a first-ever NBA championship, he returned to the German national team at the EuroBasket in Lithuania. He would go on to make his final appearance for his country in the 2015 edition of Europe's biggest basketball competition, playing on home soil in the German capital of Berlin.

Earlier this year, Nowitzki finished his illustrious NBA playing career, with which he spent all 21 years with the Mavericks. Most recently he joined Yao Ming and Kobe Bryant as official Global Ambassadors of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China.

FIBA Secretary General, Andreas Zagklis said, "Dirk is one of the greatest players to have ever played basketball, and is highly respected worldwide. He has had an exceptional career both with the NBA and with his national team and will bring with him a huge amount of experience and knowledge. He is the perfect person for this position and we look forward to working closely with him over the next term of office."

Upon being appointed Chair of the Players Commission, Dirk Nowitzki said, "I feel honored to have been given this opportunity and I am looking forward to representing players within FIBA and bringing their voices to the table where decisions are made. I am excited to take on this new role and work alongside both active and retired players around the world to ensure players interests are heard to continue the development of our beloved sport."

In 2014, FIBA announced the creation of the first-ever Players Commission that would represent the interests of the sport's main actors. This was implemented as part of the improvements made to FIBA's governance and in line with the ongoing efforts to include stakeholders in the decision-making process. Vlade Divac was appointed as the first Chairman for the 2014-2019 term. This commission is made up of 14 members and the Chairman serves on the 25 member FIBA Central Board.

The members of FIBA's Players' Commission have been named for this new term and are:

Dirk Nowitzki (GER), Chair

Jenni Screen (AUS), Dep. Chair

Maria Paula Goncalves da Silva (BRA)

Ilona Korstin (RUS)

Hamchetou Maiga Ba (MLI)

Raffaella Masciadri (ITA)

Yegor Mescheriakov (BLR)

Marko Milic (SLO)

Hanno Mottola (FIN)

Kirk Penney (NZL)

Yuko Oga (JPN)

Amaya Valdemoro (ESP)

Nikos Zisis (GRE)

Mathieu Faye (SEN)

Dejan Majstorovic (SRB – 3x3)

Marie-Eve Paget (FRA – 3x3)

###

About FIBA

FIBA (fiba.basketball) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognized as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

For further information about FIBA, visit fiba.basketball or follow FIBA on facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba, instagram.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.