OAKLAND, Calif. -- This is when ultimate competitors show their fight.

Sure, Dirk Nowitzki would rather be battling for a championship or at least a home-court advantage in the playoffs.

But as he fielded questions Friday about his future and the Mavericks' current predicament, it was clear that he's relishing this.

Warriors always enjoy the struggle, even if it's simply to make the playoffs.

These days, the one thing that bugs Nowitzki is the prospect of having nothing to fight for. That would be the only thing he would ever consider leaving the Mavericks for, he said Friday. And even then, he's not sure he would.

"I still have a year under contract and I'd love to fulfill it," Nowitzki said. "I do have the possibility to opt out. But that's not really in the plan. I always said I wanted to play three years to the end and kind of re-evaluate what my body feels like at the end of those three years."

Nowitzki is like most athletes in that he takes stock after every season and sees where he is physically, mentally and financially, which really isn't much of a concern for a guy who has made more than $200 million in his career and given Mavericks owner Mark Cuban a huge hometown discount the last few seasons.

Nowitzki's weighing how this season is going. But his focus hasn't really changed -- unless the unthinkable happens.

"In my mind, after we won the championship, it was always clear I would retire a Mav," he said. "But the question was [in a previous interview], if we're going through a rebuilding phase, is what they asked me.

"Obviously I want to compete at the highest level. I always want to make the playoffs and even more. If that's what the Mavs are going to do and rebuild, then we'll just have to wait and see."

This is when it should be noted in giant letters that Cuban has said he has no intentions of a full rebuilding plan as long as Nowitzki is suiting up for the Mavericks.

That would seem to end that subject.

And it's not like Nowitzki has grown frustrated with the Mavericks' failure to put a title-contending team around him the last five seasons. He knows it's not for a lack of effort. The Mavericks got audiences with Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony and others but came up empty.

"I can't fault what we've been trying the last few years," he said. "We've been in every conversation with every big fish and how serious those guys were to actually coming, I have no idea. DeAndre [Jordan] basically committed to us. We tried hard obviously to get this franchise to the next level. But it was some bad luck and some decisions that we can't change."

Nowitzki doesn't want the Mavericks to apologize for any of the moves they have made recently, including the trade last season to get Rajon Rondo, which was widely applauded -- until it blew up in their faces.

"The Rondo trade obviously is a risk," he said. "But if it works out, then we're looking great. But sometimes things don't work out, and if doesn't work out, then it doesn't look that great. But it was a gamble we took as a franchise, and it ended up not paying off for us."

And so Nowitzki and the Mavericks continue to fight the good fight. And that's part of why the sixth-leading scorer of all time sat out Friday's game at Golden State, the second time in two visits he's sat against the Warriors.

It goes against his competitive DNA, but Nowitzki also knows there's a bigger plan, a greater fight -- the upcoming back-to-back games at Sacramento and Denver are absolutely crucial to the Mavericks' playoff hopes.

"It's disappointing to me, but obviously I understand what's at stake," Nowitzki said. "We've got a huge back-to-back coming up with two games we've got to have. So we'll take this one [off] and be ready Sunday afternoon."

The fight, even if it's not the stakes he'd like, remains out there to be won.

Twitter: @ESefko