Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki recently joined the Ben and Skin Show on KRLD-FM 105.3 The Fan to talk all things basketball. Here are some highlights:

Question: How are you feeling physically when the Mavs are having to lean on you heavily on the offensive end?

Nowitzki: I wish we would have won a few more of those games, but I think honestly the All-Star break was good for me. Almost 38 now. To basically have a week of relaxing, went to the beach this time and just put my legs up. Got a little workout early in the morning when I got up just to stay ready. That really helped me, even though the first game after the break was ugly there in Orlando. But since then I've had a pretty decent rhythm. Feel good. Hopefully I can keep it up here these last few weeks of the season. With [Chandler] Parsons out, we're going to need everybody to play well and play at a high level to sneak in the playoffs. It's going to be tough.

Question: How devastating was that Parsons news to you?

Nowitzki: He was crushed. He was crushed. I felt really bad for him because, you know, last year he had a major surgery. To see him every day in the summer how hard he worked, and then working through the frustrations at the beginning of the season with the minutes restriction wasn't going too well. Seeing him work through that and then the frustrations, and then probably two or two and a half months play some of the best basketball of his career, just being active, making shots, and really making plays for us off the dribble, off the pick and roll. He's posting smaller guys. I think he was playing a good all-around game for us. He was really frustrated. The team was really sad for him. But, this is hopefully a small or minor thing. Hopefully in a few weeks he can already start working out again and feel good about his season next year. I think we're all bummed for him. Obviously as a team we're in the midst of a playoff battle here. So we had to move on without him and kind of hopefully get the job done.

Question: If Mavs had to rebuild again in an offseason, would you consider going somewhere else to pursue a ring?

Nowitzki: You know, that's something I'll focus on from summer to summer. I'm in the midst of chasing the playoffs here and trying to play well and compete every night. That's something we'll revisit this summer. Obviously I still have a year on the contract. I could choose to opt out. I think that's in my contract. Honestly, I haven't really spent a lot of thought on that at all. Like I said, I want to really make the playoffs bad. I think our fan base deserves that. It's always a fun part of the year. The competition is high. We'd love to be a part of that. Everything else we can, you know, come together and talk about after. There's just not enough thought put into it right now. Hopefully we can squeeze in the playoffs and then we can talk about all that stuff later.

Question: Do you think Golden State should try to beat the Chicago Bulls' record or rest their players for the playoffs?

Nowitzki: That's a tough call. That's a tough call. I think if you're this close, I think I would go for the record. I mean, that's a season for the ages. That Bulls team was obviously the best in history and they are right there. Man, they are right there. Know they're a little banged up now with some of their guys being out. [Andre] Igoudala is missing out on the last few games. That's a tough call. That's a tough call. God, if you're so close of making history I would obviously give it a shot. But the playoffs in the West can obviously be a grind. There's a lot of great teams. That's a tough call. We'll see what they do.

Question: One of our listeners texted this in. Are you the kind of guys who has 40 pairs of sneakers? Are you a big sneaker guy?

Nowitzki: I couldn't really care less. I do have some sneakers at home that I love. You know, sometimes I wear some old pair in and they're all green like I just cut the lawn with them and the whole team is killing me. 'Throw these out. You've had these since your rookie year.' I'm not the guy who has got like 200-300 pairs of shoes at home. I just wear my pair usually. I have some older ones. Fin [Michael Finely] is a big Jordan guy so he gave me some maybe the second or third year in the league. I still have those in the garage. So when I broke those out the other day I absolutely got murdered. Material things don't really mean that much to me. Never really have. There might be some games and I go though the entire game guarding somebody and then somebody would ask me after the game, 'Hey. Did you see what kind shoes that guy was wearing?' I was like, 'No, I actually didn't at all. It didn't even cross my mind to look at his freaking shoes.' I don't know. It's not my style.

Question: Give us the scouting report on Salah Mejri. What's he like?

Nowitzki: Really, really intense in the game. I mean, he gets so fiery it's actual fun to see, really fun to see. He's a competitor. He's really, really long. He's got great timing on the shot block. He just plays with the fire and just goes for it. He uses his length really well. I think what's underrated [is] he's quicker than you think. Even in that home game against Portland when he was showing on the pick and roll and [Damian] Lillard happened to cross him over and go to the rim, the way he chased him down and still got the block was really, really impressive. His stats when he's played big minutes have been really, really good. He can finish in there. He's long and active and he plays hard. He's been fun to watch for sure.