YOUR AD HERE »

Dirk Nowitzki having ‘tough time’ personally

STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Sports Writer

DALLAS ” Mavericks All-Star Dirk Nowitzki offered no explanation Thursday about the arrest of a woman at his home, saying only that he is having personal troubles now.

When asked about his relationship with 37-year-old Cristal Taylor, who was arrested on a probation violation and theft of services warrants Wednesday, Nowitzki declined comment.

“It’s pretty obvious that I’m going through a tough time in my personal life right now, but like I always have, I want to kind of keep my private life private,” he said. “I’m not at the stage where I can talk about it yet and feel comfortable talking about it.”



The Mavericks trail Denver 2-0 in the Western Conference semifinals entering Game 3 on Saturday.

“I’ll be ready,” said Nowitzki, who returned with his team from Denver on Wednesday afternoon.

Support Local Journalism



Dallas police said Taylor was taken into custody Wednesday morning at Nowitzki’s home. Kim Leach, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, said Taylor has eight aliases.

The theft charge is from Jefferson County, Texas. Bond was set at $20,000 on the theft of services charge and no bond was set on the probation violation out of St. Charles, Mo. The Dallas Morning News reported Taylor was serving a probation sentence for two counts of forgery and one count of felony stealing.

Jail records did not indicate if Taylor had an attorney.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said he didn’t expect this matter to affect the team.

“When you’re in NBA basketball and professional sports for a lot of years, there are a lot of distractions. … We’ll get through it,” Carlisle said. “This is a private, personal issue and I think we all need to respect that.”

Jason Kidd said the team was focused and had a great practice Thursday, its first since losing Game 2 on Tuesday night.

“I think he’s going to be fine,” Kidd said. “He’s a human being. Life isn’t perfect and you move on and learn from it. … We look for him to have a great game come Saturday.”


Support Local Journalism