Maybe Major League Baseball is preventing Dirk Nozitzki from throwing out the first pitch for the Texas Rangers for some reason other than as a courtesy to NBA owners, an intersport extension of the basketball lockout. Maybe it really is that as they weighed "what makes sense for the team and a good broad-base national appeal," the star player from Dallas's current major championship team wasn't a notable enough figure to beat out the rest of Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington's international celebrities for the honor.
Or maybe MLB wanted to avoid the embarrassment of showcasing a representative of a sport people actually still watch.