Dirk Nowitzki to join Mark Followill on the call of Tuesday night’s Mavericks game

Dallas Mavericks fans will get an early Christmas present on Tuesday night. Bally Sports Southwest announced that Dirk Nowitzki will join Mark Followill on the broadcast against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The announcement didn’t provide any details on whether or not Nowitzki would call the whole game or just participate in a short segment like President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison on Sunday night.

Either way, it will be nice to hear Dirk talk about basketball. He’s a little media shy, and hasn’t been very talkative since he retired. That’s changed this year, though, as he’s taken a role in the Mavericks’ front office. It seems he’s been on a media tour of late, doing interviews on Twitter Spaces and The Ticket in the past couple of months.

The cynical take is the Mavericks are putting Nowitzki out in public to distract from what’s been a so far disappointing season. And that might be the case. But it’s always good to hear from Dirk, and it will be a rare treat to hear him break down a live game. With Followill having to do a solo broadcast Sunday night, this will be a welcome reprieve for that hard work. Hopefully it’s for the full 48 minutes.