When Dirk Nowitzki was summoned to enter the shooting exhibition known as the NBA All-Star game last week, nothing beyond the warm welcome he received from the fans in Charlotte was expected. Nowitzki had been invited to play in the game as a tribute to his 21 years in the league, the 31,310 points he has scored, his one MVP trophy and his 2011 NBA title. A ceremonial spot in his 14th All-Star game was Nowitzki’s lifetime achievement award.
It obviously had nothing to do with this season. Nowitzki has missed 26 of Dallas’ 57 games while recovering from left ankle surgery, and when he has played, he has averaged only 11 minutes a game. He has scored 123 points this season with only three games in double figures. His 4.7 scoring averaged is easily a career low. So when he checked into the All-Star game with 56.6 seconds left in the first quarter, there was no hint that something unforgettable would happen.
And it did – a mere 21.9 seconds later when he swished a 3-pointer from 29 feet away.
Thirty seconds later, he buried a 33-footer, which was the last play of the first quarter.
Less than three minutes into the second period, he hit his final attempt – a jumper from 32 feet.
The fans loved it, but not as much as Nowitzki’s All-Star peers, who bolted off the bench, raising their arms, waving towels, celebrating greatness. In regular season games, teams average 178 shots each game, including 63 from 3-point range.
In the All-Star game, the teams combined for an obscene 275 field goal attempts and 167 of those were 3-pointers.
So what we’re left with is that of those 167 3-point shots, three were memorable. Nowitzki played one second less than four minutes, but those three 3-pointers will go down in All-Star lore – and Nowitzki lore.
The Mavericks have 25 games left and Nowitzki’s All-Star performance serves as a launching point for the remainder of the season, which continues Monday night with the Mavs playing at the LA Clippers. At 26-31, Dallas is still competing for a playoff spot. The Mavericks are currently 12th in the West, five games behind the No. 8 Clippers.
While the playoff race will be compelling, the issue that has existed for the last three or so years will become more intriguing. Will those 25 games be the last 25 of Dirk Nowitzki’s career?
“I want to see how my body feels the last couple of weeks,” he said at an All-Star press gathering. “If I get to see any improvement, if it’s still fun, I guess we’re going to make that decision later.”
Certainly all the signs point to his retirement. His stats across the board – points, rebounds, assists, minutes played – are career lows. It took him longer to heal from the ankle injury, and certainly age had something to do with that.
Yet there are also the traits the great ones have – competitiveness and optimism, to name two. And it wouldn’t be surprising if Dirk is so fascinated about the possibility of playing one season with Luka Doncic and the 7-3 Kristaps Porzingis, who will be 20 and 24, respectively, next season, that he decides to play one more year. Nowitzki loves the camaraderie of the locker room, so it will be interesting to see if that and the potential that a healthy Porzingis will generate will entice Nowitzki to stay one more year.
Of course, if he does return, it will be in a reduced role. But as the basketball world saw last week, Dirk is still capable of magic moments. As he said to teammates when he retired to the bench after his short, perfect display of long range shooting ended, “That’s what I do, baby. That’s what I do.”
