Mavs add Powell and Dirk's mentor subject of probe

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Mavs add Powell
July 24
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Scroll Down) (registration required): "The Mavs will sign free-agent power forward Josh Powell, the leading rebounder from their summer league team, to a two-year contract, according to league sources."

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Mavs add Powell

The Mavs will sign free-agent power forward Josh Powell, the leading rebounder from their summer league team, to a two-year contract, according to league sources.

Players can begin signing deals Thursday, as the league-mandated moratorium is lifted.

Powell will earn the league minimum for the upcoming season, expected to be in the $400,000 range, and the Mavs will have an option for 2006-07.

Powell (6-foot-9, 225 pounds) played on the Mavs' summer-league team in 2003 after leaving North Carolina State following his sophomore season, and spent most of the past two seasons playing in Italy.

He averaged a double-double with the Mavs during summer-league games in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

Powell will suit up as the summer-league team concludes play against Team USA's under-21 team today at the Deja Blue Arena at the Dr Pepper StarCenter in Frisco.

Free-agent swingman Rawle Marshall and forward Darius Rice are also in the running for invites to training camp in October.

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MAVERICKS NOTES

Dirk's mentor subject of probe

By ART GARCIA

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Dirk Nowitzki's mentor and personal coach was arrested in Germany last week on suspicion of tax evasion stemming from his ties to the Mavericks star.

German tax officials served a warrant at the apartment of Holger Geschwinder on Monday, according to the Würzburg newspaper Main Post.

Geschwinder, a member of West Germany's 1972 Olympic basketball team, has served as Nowitzki's adviser for more than a decade.

Geschwinder is being accused of profiting from his relationship with Nowitzki, halfway through the forward's six-year, $79 million contract with the Mavs.

Tax officials also searched Nowitzki's family home in Würzburg on Tuesday.

German authorities believe Geschwinder has profited from a 1996 agreement with Nowitzki to manage his future basketball earnings.

Nowitzki, then a promising player on Würzburg's club team coached by Geschwinder, made his NBA debut with the Mavs during the lockout-shortened 1999 season.

"I'm shocked about the accusations and hope that things will clear up soon," Nowitzki said in a statement released on his Web site 41fan.net last week. "I support Holger 100 percent."

Mavs officials declined comment Saturday. Nowitzki has canceled an appearance at the NBA's Basketball Without Borders camp in Italy later this month.

He has also planned to attend a rowing camp this week as part of his off-season training schedule under Geschwinder's direction. Nowitzki said he will continue to practice to remain in shape.

Though Nowitzki hasn't been accused of a crime, he isn't the first high-profile German athlete dealing with tax issues.

Tennis stars Boris Becker and Steffi Graf had run-ins with their country's tax authorities for year

[mavsfan1000]

This is not good news for Dirk. I hope he can stay motivated this summer for next year.