Dirk Nowitzki was asked about the recent struggles of the Dallas Mavericks in free agency and whether he's happy with the team.

Nowitzki will opt for free agency but is expected to re-sign on an even more cap friendly deal.

"Yeah, well, you know, I always said I wanted to compete," said Nowitzki. "Once we felt the championship, the excitement in the city, what happened here - it was incredible. As a competitor, you'd love to climb the mountain again, and have that feeling and excitement again. We just haven't been as close. We made a couple business decisions as a franchise as I always have said after the lockout and, you know, basically hoping that free agency will help us and cap space. But it just hasn't. It hasn't taken over the way we wanted to. It was a lesson learned probably the past few years that we maybe would have done different. But afterwards, you're always smarter.

"But listen, I see, obviously, reports on Twitter all the time, guys hitting me up 'I feel bad for Dirk.' Don't feel bad for me. I love what I do and we get paid a lot of money to do what we do. I love competing and I love the sport still. I've been lucky to do it for a long, long time. Came here, whatever, 18 years ago not knowing what to expect and it's been an incredible journey. I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me. I'm going to compete like I always have and then one day it'll be all over."