When Dirk Nowitzki and the German national basketball team take the floor in EuroBasket 2015 this Friday, he won’t be the only Maverick competing for his country with a trip to the Olympics on the line. In fact, Nowitzki won’t even be the biggest Maverick in Europe during the competition.
That honor belongs to new Maverick Zaza Pachulia, the six-foot-eleven, 270-pound center Dallas acquired from Milwaukee via trade this summer. The 31-year-old Pachulia has played for his native Georgia in European competition since 1999, but his club has never reached the Olympics. So while Nowitzki is looking for one more hurrah with his countrymen, Pachulia will be seeking to clinch his nation’s first-ever Olympics berth in the men’s basketball competition.