Dirk and Me (Dirk und ich)

When I met Dirk Nowitzki, I hadn’t slept for three nights in a row; I was afraid that if I fell asleep, I would never wake up again. When I closed my eyes, I was convinced I would never reopen them. So to prove myself wrong, I obviously had to reopen them. And so an endless loop of exhaustion, eyes closing, fear and eyes opening began. This, in turn, resulted in not sleeping for another three nights and my meeting Dirk Nowitzki. Suddenly there he was – standing in the middle of my room, a basketball in his hand. He was playing his final season with the Dallas Mavericks at the time and had jumped straight out of my laptop into my darkened room. For a while, we just stared at each other. Me: Dirk, I can’t take it anymore. Him: I can see that. He threw me the ball and disappeared. And me? I fell asleep and slept and slept. And when I woke up, there was a basketball beside my pillow.

Dirk and Me is an evening about success and failure, highs and panic attacks – and one of the greatest athletes of our time.