A rookie's life

Published Dec. 16, 2009 at 11:00 p.m.

So shootaround is ending this morning and the players are clowning around and doing interviews or heading to the bus.

Dirk Nowitzki is trying out for the Cowboys' kicking job.

He takes a basketball and punts it straight up in the air. If he'd been under the jumbotron, he would have hit it. But since he was at one end of the court, the ball zoomed toward the rafters -- and nobody was calling for the fair catch.

The ball splatted down on the court and bounced a good 30 feet in the air.

It had some great hang time.

So Nowitzki comes down to the other end of the court and does the same thing. Except this one goes off the side of his foot and about 30 rows up in the stands.

"Hey, rook, go get that ball,'' several players yell at Roddy Beaubois.

In football, they blame the holder. In the NBA, everything is the rookie's fault.

Don't think Nick Folk is in any danger from Nowitzki. But if Matt McBriar ever has any trouble, Nowitzki's available.

--Eddie Sefko

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