“So I was Lucky. I smelled her to find out the right one” Popular NBA Player narrates what he had to go through just to marry his Kikuyu wife
Know Dirk Nowitzki? Mavericks all-time leading scorer, the 2011 NBA Finals MVP, the 2007 NBA MVP and a two-time FIBA Europe Player of the Year. Well, he has a story to tell, a story of love with a Kenyan woman.
As narrated on Mukuriamax.com, it started way back in 2010 at a charity event for the Sports for Education and Economic Development (SEED) Project on a snowy night in February. It was NBA All-Star weekend in Dallas where the Senegal-based nonprofit used basketball as a platform to engage youths in academic, athletic and leadership programs.
Nowitzki was tricked into raising his hand during an auction that resulted in him making a major donation in exchange for a Rolando Diaz painting. He also agreed to go on two dates for charity. But he was also hoping to get a real date with a beautiful woman he met that night named Jessica Olsson, who was working at a Dallas art gallery.
Now Ollson was the daughter of a Kenyan mother and Swedish father, was born in Nanyuki, Kenya, a market town located northwest of Mount Kenya that was founded by British settlers and is the home of the Kenya Air Force. She was raised in Sweden with her younger twin brothers, Marcus and Martin, who are both English Premier League soccer players.
As fate would have it, they went out and soon enough the fell in love. According to Nowitziki, they just clicked intellectually, both liked art and both liked sports.
“She grew up around sports. We both love tennis and we love to travel. We both love kids and family.” He explained.
As it is tradition, they had to come to Kenya and meet the family and that’s where they subjected to ruracio traditions which were both new to them. At one point Nowitziki was forced to identify his wife amidst a group of other women and how he did it will basically throw you off your chair.
Here, read it for yourself:
“It was awesome. They took my wife away. They brought five or six girls out and they were all covered. So the first thing I had to do was find my wife. So I’m walking around and looking at how tall they are. I guess it’s one of the traditions. If you get it wrong, you got to pay the parents a goat or something. So I was lucky. I smelled her to find the right one. So, I got lucky there. But that was just an experience that I’ll never forget.” remembers Nowitzki.
But smelling your wife though? That’s a whole new dimension.
