Dirk Nowitzki Named NBA’s Most Valuable Player

The NBA announced today that Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki was named Most Valuable Player for the 2006-07 season. Nowitzki is the first European player to win the prestigious award as well as being the first Maverick to earn the honor.

This season, Nowitzki averaged a team-high 24.6 points a game (tied for 10th in the NBA) along with averages of 8.9 rebounds (tied for 11th) and a career-high 3.4 assists in 36.0 minutes a game. For the second straight season, Nowitzki posted career-highs in field goal percentage (50.2%), 3-point percentage (41.6%) and free throw percentage (90.4%). He finished the season as the only player in the NBA to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the free throw line.

Nowitzki has been named All-NBA seven consecutive seasons while being voted to the First Team the last three years. He remains the only Mavericks player in franchise history to be named All-NBA First Team and one of only three players (along with Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan) to be named All-NBA in each of the past seven seasons.

Nowitzki led the Mavericks as they won a franchise-best 67 games, became the first team in NBA history to record three streaks of 12 or more wins (12, 13 and 17) and just the fourth team ever to have three double-digit winning streaks in the same season.