Taylor Rooks set internet on fire after watching Lakers vs Mavericks with legend Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki and Taylor Rooks watched the Dallas Mavericks vs Los Angeles Lakers game yesterday at American Airline Center.

Taylor Rooks set internet on fire after watching Lakers vs Mavericks with legend Dirk Nowitzki

Future Prime Video colleagues Dirk Nowitzki and Taylor Rooks at the Lakers-Mavericks game

Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki has been to quite a few NBA games ever since he retired. Most of it are games involving his former team, but he has also watched other games. Now the Hall of Famer is preparing for a career in basketball, but off the court.

For that reason, he has been preparing himself, which means, watching games live. But he was also at Crypto.com Arena to watch close friend and former teammate Luka Doncic make his debut for the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Considering his affinity for his Mavericks, he has made it to the American Airlines Center quite a few times. Yesterday, the former league MVP was seen at the Mavs arena sitting alongside Taylor Rooks. ESPN cameras picked up the German checking his phone and chatting with Rooks as the Mavericks took on the Lakers.

In a game that was seen as Luka Doncic’s homecoming, it was not surprising to see Nowitzki present. But fans wondered why he was sitting with Rooks. The TNT host stoked the curiosity further when she posted a picture of the two. But once fans read what she wrote as a caption, they understood why they were sitting together.

Lakers-Mavs with my new teammate!!! NBA on Prime Video coming at ya October 2025

Taylor Rooks wrote

This message confirmed that Taylor Rooks and Dirk Nowitzki will be working together at Prime Video when their NBA coverage starts next season. Rooks had already signed a major deal earlier, and Nowitzki was confirmed as an analyst. This means, it was just a preparation job for both the future colleagues.

Dirk Nowitzki and Taylor Rooks enact Ja Morant’s celebrations

ESPN cameras were busy capturing Luka Doncic torch his former team, the Dallas Mavericks. But there was one sequence where he was at the free throw line. Knowing the referees were waiting to give him the ball, the camera panned to Dirk Nowitzki and Taylor Rooks.

Rooks appeared to gesture shooting the Hall of Famer with her finger gun. Then the Hall of Famer jokingly gestured as if he was throwing a grenade. They even caught that on Rooks’ phone. It seemed as if they were replicating what Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant did recently.

He first brought out the finger gun celebrations that led to a warning from the NBA. He shrugged the warning and went back to enact them again. Now the NBA had no choice but to slap him with a $75K fine.

Knowing the guns were not going to be tolerated, Morant came out with a grenade celebration. Those celebrations have caught fire among basketball fans, and the two future Prime Video employees were just having fun re-enacting them.

Rooks and Nowitzki part of Prime Video’s star-studded cast

Amazon’s Prime Video won a landmark deal to become one of the NBA’s next media rights partners. They beat out TNT, which briefly caused confusion regarding the future of Inside the NBA. Taylor Rooks was already working with TNT at the time as both a courtside reporter as well as host of Bleacher Report’s podcast.

Dirk Nowitzki made a brief appearance on Inside the NBA to cover for Shaquille O’Neal. This interested Prime Video, and they swooped to sign both Rooks as the host of their studio show, and Nowitzki as one of the analysts.

Then after Blake Griffin officially retired, they signed him as the second studio analyst. This means, Prime Video will have two elite former NBA stars as analysts and a seasoned pro in Rooks as host. It is possible that Prime Video may add more to their studio if the need arises.