DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki eliminated any doubt about his commitment to salvage the struggling Mavericks' season Saturday night, when he addressed the media for the first time since being shut down a week ago due to lingering soreness in his right Achilles tendon.
"I'm all-in. I want to play," Nowitzki said in front of his locker after his teammates pulled off the Mavs' most lopsided win of the season, a 107-82 victory over the Chicago Bulls that improved Dallas' record to a Western Conference-worst 4-15. "This is obviously not a career-ending injury that I've got. It's something that just keeps lingering unfortunately. I can hopefully get over it.
"There's still a lot of season left. December just started. We know that there's a lot of games coming, so hopefully sometime soon I'll be out there and then stay out there. I don't want to jump in and out of the lineup with soreness or fight this whole year. I'd love to be healthy and stay out there once I go."
Nowitzki, the sixth-leading scorer in NBA history, has been limited to only five games this season because of Achilles soreness that started after he played 38 minutes in a season-opening overtime loss to the Indiana Pacers.
He is out indefinitely but hopes to return before the end of the month.
After missing eight straight games, Nowitzki played in blowout losses to the Clippers and Cavaliers last week. He said the soreness and stiffness in his Achilles returned during the second half of the Nov. 25 loss in Cleveland. He has not played since.
"It's frustrating for me," said Nowitzki, a 19-year veteran who has missed more than 10 games in a season only once before in his career. "The whole situation is frustrating to be dealing with something I never have before in my career, so it's tough. But once I'm out there, I don't want the same thing to happen again that just happened last week, so I want to make sure now it's good to go. At this stage of my career, I don't move well anyways, so if I'm out there at 80-90 percent, I don't think I'm a big help. I want to make sure my body's responding the right way and we'll go from there.
"Achilles injuries are tough, and they just limit your movement a lot. Limit my movement 10 years ago, I'd still be able to play effectively out there. But if you limit my movement now, I'm already a step slow, and that makes me three steps slow. It just makes no sense to be out there."
Nowitzki said the Mavs' athletic training staff has been ramping up his workouts recently. He has run on a treadmill and did some work on the court Friday, but he acknowledged that significant progress must be made before he is ready to play in games again.
Nowitzki deflected a question about whether his health issues could influence his decision to return for next season, when only $5 million of his $25 million salary is guaranteed. He said his sole concern at the moment is returning as soon as possible.
Nowitzki refuses to view this as a rebuilding season for the Mavs. He said they had an extremely difficult November schedule and had to deal with a lot of health issues in addition to his own. But Nowitzki added that the team's prospects have improved with the return of guards Deron Williams and Devin Harris.
"Hopefully I'll be back soon and we can run off some wins," Nowitzki said. "That's the only way I look at it. Everything else is nonsense."
