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Maverick's MVP Nowitzki still feeling empty
FRANKFURT: Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, the first European to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player award, said on Tuesday he still felt a deep emptiness about his team's playoff collapse.
"I still feel totally empty," Nowitzki, 28, said in Frankfurt, where he received a German Basketball Association award for outstanding achievement.
"But I hope the team stays together so that we can still achieve something in the future," he added.
Nowitzki was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player last week, the award capping a roller-coaster campaign for Nowitzki, a versatile seven-footer who played brilliantly during the season but poorly during the Mavericks' playoff.
The Golden State Warriors, taking advantage of an ineffective Nowitzki, defeated the Mavericks four games to two in early May in the best of seven series.
He said: "Once a few weeks go past, I think I'll then be able to see what an unbelieveable season we had. It was a super year...until the playoffs."
Uruguay hard man Montero reported to have retired
MONTEVIDEO: Former Juventus and Uruguay defender Paolo Montero, regarded as one of football's most uncompromising players, was reported by Uruguayan media on Tuesday to have retired.
However, teammates at his club Penarol said they were trying to persuade him to change his mind and complete the current season.
Uruguayan media said Montero, 35, had turned up at a training session, told them that he was leaving and said goodbye.
"It's a tough blow to lose our captain," Montero's teammate Ruben Capria said in an interview on the Web site of Tenfield, who hold television rights to the Uruguayan championship.
Montero won four Serie A titles during nine years in Italy with Juventus and was a pillar in the defence, despite regularly being sent off.
He won 61 caps and scored five goals for his country and played at the 2002 World Cup, though injury forced him to miss the 1995 Copa America which Uruguay hosted and won.
After leaving Juventus, Montero spent an injury-plagued season with San Lorenzo in Argentina before returning to finish his career Penarol, the club where he was raised.
Robben set to miss friendly against South Korea
Winger Arjen Robben will not join the Dutch squad for their friendly international matches against South Korea on June 2 and Thailand four days later, the Dutch soccer federation (KNVB) said.
The KNVB said the Chelsea player was still recovering from a knee injury and would use the coming period to get fit.
Netherlands coach Marco van Basten will announce his squad on Friday.
(China Daily 05/24/2007 page23)
