“Let’s keep immigrants out…except the geniuses”

I was flipping through a magazine the other day and came across an interesting article regarding how states will be much more stringent on granting H1-B visas to immigrants to ensure that companies are hiring U.S. workers. 

For example, you can’t pay them less then a U.S. worker and you have to lay out exactly what they’re doing and how they qualify more than any U.S. worker, so on and so forth. 

However, the U.S. has a lesser known type of visa known as the O-1 visa.  This thing is referred to as “the genius visa”, and all it takes is to prove that this singular person has a skill set that no one else in the world, let alone in the entire United States of America has.

This O-1 visa is completely removed from any political debate going on in the U.S. government between Republicans and Democrats.

I know what you’re thinking, “what the hell does this discourse on immigration and business have to do with sports?”

Well, one of the few people who happen to have one of these “genius visas”?

Big, what’s this say?

Yup, you guessed it, Dirk Nowitzki.  Other athletes who have qualified for O-1 visas?  Wayne Gretzky, Ronaldo, and Annika Sorenstam

The big german Speaks, and it dosn't involve gary trents dad.

Germans, yup we got a 5 headed penis.

So our favorite German Dallas Maverick spoke to Jeff Caplin at the Star Telegram. Here are some excerpts. Including him talking of retiring from the NBA in 3 years.

About retiring in Dallas.

" I always was kind of the young talent and now I’ve crossed that line. We’ll just have to see how these next couple of years go. I would love to finish my career, obviously, in Dallas. I’ve always said that. Hopefully we can win the championship here in these three years and everything will be great. If not, I think we all have to keep our eyes and ears open to what’s going on."

When to hang it up.

"I think the worst thing that athletes can do is play too long and at the end look slow and don’t look right and they lose some of their reputation. "

"Obviously, as you get older you start thinking about
other things, too ... stuff like family comes up over the years and we’ll see what happens there."

Playing in German when he's done here.

"There’s one big club in Germany, in Berlin, called ALBA Berlin, and they’ve been asking me every year. Actually, the owner’s dream is to have me in their uniform once before I retire, and I’m sure he’s going to do everything he can to make that happen before my career is over. And really, on that subject, too, I leave everything open. ... "

Josh Howard

" But knowing him for that long, he’s a good guy. People are trying to make him a bad guy now. I can for sure say that he’s fun to be around, he’s a good kid, he cares; just sometimes he needs to learn to control himself and just keep some stuff to himself and he’ll be all right. "

Pretty standard stuff. Its not a stretch to think that Dirk would want to go play his last few years of good basketball in his home country. If he did that, I think it would make me like the guy more.

Ohh and on the Josh Howard quote, am i the only guy who immediately thought "that's cuz he brings the weed?" Might just be me.

Javol Mein Furher!

So the Mavs are on a little bit of a slide. Thats cool. I get it. But over the weekend the Mavs saw some old faces, and saw a Big German become their all time leading scorer.



Thats my wunderkind.

As for the game, Dallas smoked the Nets 111-91 in a contest that wasn't ever really close. Dirk had 34, Stack 20, and Kidd threw in his 13 dimes. Surprising play of the night? Brandon Bass had a season high 19 pts off the bench.

We got to see our former players Devin Harris(9 pts 2 assists), and Diop(1 pt 5 boards) struggle, so that was kinda nice for the whole Kidd trade flavor.

But the story of the night was Dirk. He passed Ro Blackman with his last 2 points in the 4th quarter, to become Mr. Dallas Maverick.

Two quick points

1) The Favre era is over.
He's retiring. I hope someone has John Madden and Peter King on suicide watch. Aaron Rodgers? Craig Nall? Paul Thompson? Draft Pick A? Who's the guy that's going to be put in the next Brian Griese/Jake Plummer/Jay Cutler type fiasco of trying to replace a legend and fan icon?


2) You won't like Dirk when he's angry
Sure, the Mavericks lost last night, and badly to the Utah Jazz. Did anyone else kind of feel taken aback that Dirk went all Kermit Washington on Andrei Kirilenko? Better yet, does anyone think he screamed "HITLER WAS BETTER THAN STALIN!" when he did it? I hope he did. I'm probably one of the few who thinks Dirk should stare down David Stern and Mark Cuban as much as possible. I bet Big was proud of him.

Dirk-son and his German Miyagi

Interesting story about the big German that plays for Dallas. Its from the Dallas Observer, about not only his trip to Australia over the summer, but how his mentor and trainer, Holger Geschwinder, trys to improve his game. Her are some excerpts.

On his summer trip.

"Whether Nowitzki realized it or not, he was following in the footsteps of the Aborigine, who had traced similar paths for thousands of years on their ritualistic walkabouts. They were spiritual journeys, a renewing of the Aborigine's relationship with the earth, and a communion with ancestral spirits. In modern times, the walkabout was often seen as a journey back to one's physical homeland, a reminder of who the Aborigine was and of the things most important in life."

On how he would get Dirk to the NBA

"Geschwinder told Nowitzki that he could achieve his dream of playing in the NBA, but it would take a lot of hard work and dedication. He came up with a five-year plan. He believed that the game of basketball was changing, and that if Nowitzki was going to compete in the NBA he would have to become a player who could play any position. So instead of putting him under the basket and teaching him the dunk and the sky hook, the traditional moves of men his size, he dragged him out to the 3-point line and taught him how to shoot. "

His unorthodox training methods

"At times Geschwinder's training methods seemed bizarre, rooted in a bygone era, and in the same way that the Daniel LaRusso character questioned his mentor, Mr. Miyagi, in the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, Nowitzki sometimes was left scratching his head at the drills his coach came up with. To teach Nowitzki balance, for example, Geschwinder had him do walking handstands or ran him around like a wheelbarrow, with his hands on Nowitzki's ankles. To teach defense, he got a former fencing champion to demonstrate to Nowitzki that in fencing, as in all sports, good offense flows out of good defense. Over the years, his training regimen would include rowing, ballet, rollerblading and guitar lessons. To prepare Nowitzki for the added weight his frame would acquire, he made him wear a 22-pound vest as he practiced. "

Dirks wants out life

"What would come after basketball? Nowitzki wondered. He had enough money (he would make $16 million the next season alone), but money wasn't everything. "It helps," Geschwinder would say. "But it's not the point." Nowitzki wanted a family. He had never wanted to be married before 30, but 30 was approaching, and before long he would want to meet a woman and have kids"

This is just a great read, and if you are a Mav's fan, or just a fan of a kinda crazy NBA player, check out the story here .