Not Done Yet Dirk Nowitzki said his goal for this year was to finish strong. Adam Hunger/USA Today Sports, via Reuters Marc Stein No one will be busier at the upcoming All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, N.C., than Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. Nowitzki will serve as an honorary coach of Team World in the Rising Stars game Friday night, compete in the 3-point contest Saturday night and then become just the second 40-year-old in league history to play in the actual All-Star Game — joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Commissioner Adam Silver recently named Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat special roster additions for the league’s 68th All-Star Game. It’s the perfect time, then, to catch up with Nowitzki for the second of the periodic chats we have planned during his record-breaking 21st consecutive season with one franchise. Q: The first time we did one of these, you weren’t even able to play yet because of the slow recovery from foot surgery. How would you assess your first 25 games back? DIRK: I did obviously everything I could to try to be ready, but it was really rough those first couple weeks just to try to adjust to the speed of the game. You can practice all you want and run all you want, but there’s no substitute for playing games. And my last game I actually played before the surgery was in April, so I was basically out for eight months. It was tough for me to get going. There were frustrating times. There were disappointing times. But it’s been a lot better these last few weeks. I feel like I can move a little better and finally enjoy myself a little bit. I still hopefully can get a little better. The goal is to finish the season strong. Q: We see you going through all kinds of in-game exercises to try to get loose before you check in. How big of an adjustment has that been? DIRK: I’ve never really come off the bench in my entire career. My first year a little bit, but other than that I’ve always been a starter. So every timeout I want to do something. Stretch a little, quick little crosscourt run, some slides. Anything to stay halfway loose. Some of our guys — J.J. Barea, Devin Harris — have been doing that for years. I kind of adopted that routine from them. Q: You’ve been saying for years that you don’t want a farewell tour — yet it seems as though the whole N.B.A. is foisting a farewell tour upon you. How comfortable (or not) have you been with all the attention you’ve been getting? DIRK: It’s been awesome. Boston comes to mind, Madison Square Garden, Indiana. It’s obviously great to feel love from your home crowd, but to get so much appreciation and respect on the road is unbelievable. Not a lot of players get a standing ovation when you sub in on the road. It’s an emotional feeling. I’m not going to forget that for the rest of my life. I’m truly appreciative. Q: How ready are you for what’s coming in Charlotte? DIRK: I’m going to soak it all in. No matter what happens next year with the Mavs, this is for sure going to be my last time on this stage. So I’m going to enjoy spending some time with our future stars in this league — and Saturday is going to be a blast. I’ve seen the competition for the 3-point contest and all of them are incredible shooters. For me it’s a no-pressure situation. Just get out there and hoist a few up and hopefully get hot. It’s the same thing on Sunday; honestly I don’t want to play that much. This is about the players who got voted in and who are carrying this league and their franchises. They deserve to be on that stage. If I get out there for a minute or two and hoist up a 3, that’ll be a great experience. Q: I have to be honest. Even though you won it once (in 2006), I never really thought the contest suited your shooting style, running from rack to rack and throwing up quick 3s. How do you see it? DIRK: I don’t mind it. It’s different obviously than catching and shooting during the game. Even the year I won in Houston, I almost got bounced in the first round for not finishing my last rack in time. It’s harder for taller guys. We have a longer, slower release. I was joking with Adam Silver that I should get an extra 15 seconds to finish all the racks, since I’m the elder statesman, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Q: I heard you acknowledge recently on Zach Lowe’s podcast that you’ve had some “frosty” moments in the past with D-Wade, but a lot of people will be watching Wednesday night to see if he asks you to exchange jerseys after Miami plays in Dallas. Are you ready for that? DIRK: I think everybody knows there were some cold times between us, but I’ve always said he made me a better player by Miami beating us in ’06. I’m just glad that in ’11 we were able to turn the tables, but at the end of the day he’s a great competitor and a great player and he made me a better player. Q: We definitely did talk a lot about Luka Doncic the last time we had one of these visits, but he has an even bigger profile now. What are your latest Luka observations? DIRK: Like I’ve been saying all season, for a 19-year-old, you just don’t see someone who has so much savvyness and court vision — and the confidence to not get discouraged by one or two mistakes. Everybody is kind of waiting for him to hit that rookie wall and it just hasn’t happened. We traded away a bunch of our other playmakers, so now everything is on his shoulders even more. And he’s just doing it all now, even more so than before. He’s creating everything. Q: And now the Mavericks have Kristaps Porzingis, too. I’m sure you’ve heard that the comparisons between Luka and Porzingis to you and Steve Nash are already out there. What can they become as a duo? DIRK: I think they’re going to be great together. They both fit the new style of the N.B.A. so well. Luka is bigger than Nashy, so he can make plays that Nashy could never make. And Zinger is even longer than me and more athletic and shoots it super easy from deep. He’s a good dude, hard worker — he wants to be great. We hope to see that combo in Dallas for a long, long time.