- Nowitzki applauds Boll: "A very big one is stepping down"
Dirk Nowitzki gushes about the extraordinary career of Timo Boll as he bids farewell to the Olympics, making retirement sound appealing. "Many beautiful times lie ahead of him," the basketball legend told Deutsche Presse-Agentur after the last international appearance of the table tennis star. "We athletes always have a bit of fear about stopping. If you've done something for 20, 25, 30 years, there's a certain emptiness at first. But life afterwards isn't as bad as it sounds."
Boll lost with the German team 0:3 in the Olympic quarterfinal of the team event against Sweden, suffering defeats in both doubles and singles. The 43-year-old had announced in May that he would only play one more year for his club Borussia Düsseldorf after his seventh Summer Games.
Nowitzki watched Boll's last Olympic matches from the tribune, applauded, and filmed as the audience honored the former world number one. "A giant is retiring. I'm glad I could be there," said the former NBA champion. "I met Timo in 2008 at the Olympics in Beijing, we've been very good friends since. We see each other often, write to each other. He's a heartwarming person."
Nowitzki: "He's an Odenwald fighting pig"
Like Nowitzki, Boll is going down in history as one of Germany's greatest athletes. Four Olympic team medals, two individual world championship medals, and eight European titles adorn the Hessian's record. "He gave everything to his sport," said Nowitzki, revealing his nickname for Boll: "I've always called him fighting pig, he's an Odenwald fighting pig."
Boll was happy about Nowitzki's visit to his Olympic farewell. "It's also a nice memory for him," he said. "He's been saying for years, 'Finally retire, so we can do more together.' I always resisted, but now it's time."
The German Press Agency reported on Dirk Nowitzki's praise for Timo Boll's extraordinary career, expressing his fondness and admiration for the table tennis star. After Boll announced his retirement from Olympic competition, Nowitzki watched his final matches and shared warm words, calling him a "fighting pig" and one of Germany's greatest athletes. [The German Press Agency]
