Annual Tennis Classic Continues to Cement Dirk Nowitzki’s Legacy in the Dallas Community

The Dirk Nowitzki Foundation Tennis Classic has become about much more than a day of tennis, celebrities and familiar faces. After eight years, it is now a pillar of the sports community calendar, the organization’s flagship event and fundraiser, and a reflection of its growth over the 25 years since its founding in 2001.

What makes the Tennis Classic important to Nowitzki isn’t simply its growth or the names it brings to Dallas, but the funding it provides for the foundation’s work throughout the year. It’s also a continuation of a lesson he learned early in his Dallas career: giving back to the community that embraced him.

“We’re super proud as a foundation to see the growth of the event from year to year with more support, more fans, more celebrities, more support from their sponsors,” Nowitzki said. “This has been an incredible ride to see it, the whole eight years and everything that we went through to get to this spot.”

This summer, the foundation awarded grants to organizations including the Dallas Tennis Education Academy, Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County, Klyde Warren Park, Mosaic Family Services, Studio School of Music, Dallas Leadership Foundation and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“We’re in a position that we can highlight these great organizations that do so much good work and that we can help them do continue their great work for another year or two,” Nowitzki explained.

That mindset dates back to Nowitzki’s earliest years in Dallas. He credits former Mavericks teammates Steve Nash and Michael Finley with showing him the importance of giving back.

“When I first got here, the last thing I was worried about is having a foundation,” Nowitzki added. “And then, you learn from your veterans it’s important to give back to community that comes out and supports you.”

Nowitzki has carried that lesson into his own family. His children attend foundation events, help with food drives and sometimes join him for hospital appearances.

“We want to instill in them early that being part of the community, being a good neighbor, always extending a helping hand is part of what we do as a family,” Nowitzki said. “We want them to be good neighbors, to be good part of the community and just be good all-around people.”

That may be the clearest measure of what the Tennis Classic has become: a yearly gathering that helps sustain the foundation’s work while giving Nowitzki another opportunity to pass along the lesson he learned when he was just beginning his own journey in Dallas.