Power Forwards are Dropping Like Flies – Dirk Nowitzki to Have Knee Surgery

What the hell is going on in the NBA's Western Conference? The season hasn't even started and Kevin Love is out for 6-8 weeks, and now the Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki is going miss about the first 13 games of the season after deciding to have knee surgery.

Surprisingly, this will be the first surgery for Nowitzki after 14 years in the NBA. That's a pretty good run, but all good things come to an end I guess. Nowitzki had already had the knee drained twice this preseason and since it was working, he decided to get arthroscopic surgery. According to ESPN.com, Nowitzki said he had to think long-term.

If it's going to keep swelling up on me, that's obviously not a way to go throughout an 82-game season and hopefully long playoff run.

The Mavs should be able to weather this pretty well, and 13 games to start the year isn't that big of a deal. Better now than the middle of the year or in the playoffs, for sure.