During ESPN's broadcast of the 1998 Nike Hoop Summit, Mavs icon Dirk Nowitzki's name was repeatedly misspelled because no one knew who he was.

At the time, Nowitzki was only known in Germany. That all changed after Dirk put up 33 points and 14 rebounds at the Nike Hoop Summit.

Via Tim MacMahon of ESPN:

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Before stepping foot on American soil, 19-year-old Dirk Nowitzki played on a second-division team in his German hometown of Wurzburg that occasionally canceled practices to work on a farm owned by a teammate.

Sure, Nowitzki had managed to play his way onto the radar of some NBA teams and college programs. But he was far from a phenom.

That all changed during the 1998 Nike Hoop Summit in San Antonio's Alamo Stadium, when the lanky kid, who was so unheralded that his surname was misspelled “Nowitzski” repeatedly on the ESPN broadcast, blew up for 33 points and 14 rebounds to lead the World team to an upset over the U.S. in a matchup against future NBA stars.

Dirk Nowitzki's name is hard to spell even to this day. Since ESPN had no idea who he was, it's not a surprise they kept misspelling it.

Nowitzki made sure that everyone would know his name in the NBA, though. With the Mavs, Dirk has established himself as one of the best players in NBA history. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer one day.