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On his 39th birthday, Dirk Nowitzki plans to help grow sport globally with Basketball Without Borders

DALLAS — Despite keeping his attention on training for a 20th season with the Dallas Mavericks, 13-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki will still make time to help grow the sport of basketball globally this summer.

This season, Nowitzki battled his way through an injury-riddled campaign to complete his 19th year in the NBA averaging 14.2 points and 6.5 rebounds in 54 games. He also connected on 43.7 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from three-point range, becoming the sixth player in league history to reach 30,000 points for his career in the process. Still, despite training for a bounce-back year after battling a right Achilles strain that forced him to miss 25 of the Mavericks’ first 30 games this season, the leading foreign-born scorer in league history will take out time to give back to the sport he loves by participating in the Basketball Without Borders program and the NBA’s second game in Africa, which will take place on Aug.