Cologne, July 20: Basketball star Dirk Nowitzki has said that his goal and the goal of his team, the Dallas Mavericks, is "to achieve the qualification for the Olympic Games". Nowitzki was in Cologne on Sunday (July 20) taking part in a two month drive to find talented young basketball players in Germany. The event ended "The NBA Basketball Challenge National Finale" and was the first test for the Dirk Nowitzki Basketball Academy (DNBA) which aims to discover new talent. Speaking at the show, Nowitzki said: "This will be very, very difficult". He added: "I believe we have to make the semi-finals in order to achieve that and it will be a difficult task. But I think we are a good team. Lets see how we will do. "That's why I do events like this one, to improve the chances for talents in Germany", Nowitzki said. "We are bringing NBA coaches over (to Europe) to teach them something," he added.


DNBA, developed by a softdrink maker and the NBA, is in search of 420 new young basketball players who will be selected in a second round in August.


NBA assistant coaches will then choose the 40 best players who will get a chance to attend the "Final Academy" in Nowitzki's Bavarian hometown of Wuerzburg.


Of those, the top five players will be flown to the United States in October to "experience the real NBA feeling". Nowitzki is a two-time NBA All-Star, succeeding in 2002 and 2003.


Bureau Report