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NBA

Dirk's Girlfriend Has Past With Former NFL Quarterback

Posted May 14, 2009 11:04AM By Tom Ziller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Mavericks, NBA Police Blotter

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The sordid story of Dirk Nowitzki and Cristal Taylor has taken another odd turn, as former NFL quarterback Tony Banks has come out and admitted that he had a brief, destructive relationship with the woman in 1997.

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    Cristal Taylor, a 37-year-old ex-stripper, has a history of legal woes. Dirk Nowitzki's alleged girlfriend was arrested last week on an outstanding warrant stemming from a 2006 felony theft charge. Click through the gallery for police booking photos of sports stars.

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Banks told the Dallas Morning News that after a short, tumultuous affair ended, Taylor attempted to sully his reputation, even calling his coach Dick Vermeil to badmouth the quarterback.

How did he meet Taylor? Banks said a scorned friend who wanted to be his agent "sicced" Taylor on him, as a perverse form of punishment. This is the woman Dirk Nowitzki was reportedly ready to marry.
Alarmed that Taylor was "trying to run my name through the mud," Banks notified team security, which learned Taylor had a criminal history and had used multiple identities.

"This is unbelievable," Banks said. "This is wild. I can't believe it's the same chick."
Banks originally began a relationship with Taylor after being contacted by her through Banks' friend, but claimed that she "showed her crazy [side] pretty early." When things turned sour she began to make the damaging calls to Vermeil, prompting Banks' coach, according to the former quarterback, to grow so skeptical of Banks that he consider drafting Jake Plummer to replace him.

Taylor, a 37-year-old ex-stripper, was a fugitive for eight years when she was arrested in Dirk's home last week on an outstanding warrant stemming from probation violations. She will face a 2006 felony theft charge, which can carry a punishment of probation up to two years in state jail.

The Morning News has done quite a bit of other research into Taylor's past, including the frightening allegation that she ran up $330,000 in curious debt while married to a Texas man earlier this decade. (They have since divorced, and he has filed for bankruptcy.) She has been accused of forgery and theft-related crimes multiple times since the 1990s. It's not just the $10,000 dentist bill Taylor ran from: she apparently had a past littered with improprieties.

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    Boston Celtics guard Paul Pierce (34) and Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard (12) battle for rebound as Magic forward Rashard Lewis (9) and Celtics center Kendrick Perkins (43) assist during the first half of a second-round NBA playoff basketball game in Orlando, Fla., Thursday, May 14, 2009. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

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Several unnamed Mavericks employees reportedly attempted to convince Dirk to investigate Taylor's past; it has been reported that Dirk hired a private investigator at some point, and may have been involved in alerting authorities to Taylor's location when things turned bad at Chez Nowitzki. It's been reported that Taylor is engaged to Nowitzki and pregnant with his child, but Nowitzki wouldn't answer any questions about that when the arrest was made at his home last week.
"It's pretty obvious that I'm going through a tough time in my personal life right now," Dirk said. "Like I always have, I want to kind of keep my private life private. I really am not at the stage where I can talk about it yet and feel comfortable talking about it. I'm more than happy to answer basketball questions, but I think at this point, I just can't talk about it."
It's amazing and sad that Dirk allowed someone with this sort of past to get so close to him.

Tags: Dirk+Nowitzki, Tony+Banks

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