Maybe it was the Tim MacMahon bump, but the sixth most-popular online petition in the entire world -- at least at Petition Online -- is the one containing the words "Dirk Nowitzki." As of moments ago, some 2,037 folks are demanding that the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund (or German Olympic Team, I think -- that, or some kind of a soup made with noodles, sausage and warm beer) make Dirk the "Fahnenträger für die Olympischen Spiele 2008 in Peking." Or, ya know, Germany's flag-bearer at the 2008 Olympics, where Your Favorite Dallas Maverick will lead his country's team into battle. For grins, further Web-assisted translation:

Dirk Nowitzki is one of the few superstars of the German sport, if not even the only one. Dirk Nowitzki was with his sporty and particularly charakterlichen achievement in the last years always a model and stands like no other sportsman for the Olympic dream. Dirk Nowitzki employed and should regularly personal interests in the German basketball national team and the German sport in the past years generally in the back now for his attitude and his outstanding sporty achievements be rewarded.

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As I recall, he is also very tall for his age. --Robert Wilonsky