Dirk Nowitzki has been playing for the Dallas Mavericks since before Myspace was created.
The 14-time All-Star has been in the league long enough to see the explosion of social media and the affect it has on NBA players. Nowitzki recently spoke about the topic with The Atheltic’s Frank Isola.
“Guys would sit around the locker room waiting for the coach to talk and during that wait there would be conversations taking place. Now it is 15 guys on their phones,” Nowitzki said. “There’s not much time being spent together. But I’m not sure about the whole happy, unhappy thing.
“ … I don’t know if it’s about winning as much anymore as it is looking good on Instagram, Twitter, having followers and having clicks and likes,” Nowitzki said. “I do agree 20 years ago people weren’t on their phones as much.”
For clarity: Nowitzki was referring to comments recently made by NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who suggested it’s no coincidence that players are glued to their phones more than ever before.
In any case, Nowitzki has seen the league — and its players — change a lot over his career. If anyone’s qualified to talk about this topic, it’s him.
It’s easy to tune out the distractions when you bet on basketball at Skybook.ag.
