At Timo Boll’s last Olympic appearance, Dirk Nowitzki is also rooting for the table tennis star. Afterwards, the basketball legend reveals what advice he gives his friend and what nickname he gives him.
As he bids farewell to the Olympics, Dirk Nowitzki raves about Timo Boll’s extraordinary career and makes retirement from sport appealing to him. “There are many good times ahead of him,” the basketball legend told the German Press Agency after the table tennis star’s last international appearance. “We athletes are always a little afraid of giving up. When you’ve done something for 20, 25, 30 years – there’s a certain emptiness that comes with it. But life afterwards isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
Boll and the German team lost 3-0 in the Olympic quarterfinals of the team competition against Sweden, losing in both the doubles and singles. The 43-year-old announced in May that he would only play for his club Borussia Düsseldorf for one more year after his seventh Summer Games.
Friendship since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing
Nowitzki watched Boll’s last Olympic games from the stands, applauded and filmed how the audience paid homage to the former world number one on his lap of honor. “A great man is retiring. I was pleased that it worked out and that I was able to be there,” said the former NBA champion. “I met Timo in 2008 at the Olympic Games in Beijing, and we have been very, very good friends ever since. We see each other often during the year and write to each other often. He is a very kind person.”
Nowitzki: “He is a fighting pig from the Odenwald”
Like Nowitzki, Boll will go down in history as one of the greatest German athletes. The Hesse native’s statistics include four team medals at the Olympics, two individual medals at the World Championships and eight European Championship titles. “He gave everything to his sport,” said Nowitzki and revealed his nickname for Boll: “I always called him a fighting pig, he is a fighting pig from the Odenwald.”
Boll was happy about the visit to mark his Olympic farewell. “It’s a nice memory for him too,” he said. “He’s been saying for years, finally stop, we can do a bit more together. I’ve always resisted it, but now the time has come.”
Source: Stern
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