"The Mavericks will have to play without superstar Dirk Nowitzki for at least another three weeks, the franchise icon said today.

Nowitzki, speaking for the first time in more than two weeks, said his rehab is not going as fast as he would like. He's been pushing himself as much as possible, but the first knee surgery of his career is proving to be a difficult adversary.

"Well, unfortunately not as soon as we all hoped, I think," Nowitzki said when asked when he might return to the court. "I think originally when the last statement we put out was it's going to take six weeks before I do any basketball activity. Unfortunately, I tried, but I couldn't cut the time down."

Nowitzki hit some rough spells in the last two weeks and only started upgrading his workout regimen on Monday. It's been one month and one day since he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.