Of his many extraordinary achievements, there is one that reflects the unimagined brilliance of Dirk Nowitzki’s career. When he arrived in Dallas in 1998, he was a slim, gangly 7-footer listed at 237 pounds, although that seemed to be an exaggeration of about 20 pounds.
He had spent the previous season playing for DJK Würzburg, a team in the lowly second division of German basketball. Despite the lack of quality competition, he had fared well in international play and the Mavericks were optimistic that he could develop into an excellent NBA player. During that rookie season, however, he averaged only 20 minutes and 8.2 points a game and certainly no one was making this prediction:
Before he stops playing, Dirk Nowitzki will have scored more points than Wilt Chamberlain.
While it is true that Chamberlain played 14 seasons to Dirk’s 21 and 400 fewer regular season games, Wilt is the legend who once scored 100 points in a game and averaged more than 50 per game in one season. That Dirk has produced enough to even be mentioned in the same paragraph as Chamberlain is mind boggling.
As the 2018-19 NBA season winds down with the Mavericks missing the playoffs for the third consecutive year – and for the sixth time in Nowitzki’s career – Dirk has set up his fans for a pleasant surprise. He has been consistently saying he would decide on retirement after the season ended. It has been a tough year for Nowitzki. He missed the first 26 games recovering from ankle surgery and his average of 15 minutes playing time a game is the fewest of his career.
At age 40, he is hardly an old man. But on a team whose best player this season was 19, Nowitzki is definitely an old basketball player and he has looked it, often laboring simply to get up and down the court.
But it is the presence of Luka Doncic, now 20, that may have something to do with one last surprise by Nowitzki. While it is popular to assume that Dirk will retire – the last part of the season has featured a number of tributes by opposing teams , including an unforgettable salute by Clippers coach Doc Rivers – he has not only not ruled out playing, but also hinted that it is tempting to play one more year.
“It’s been humbling,” he said of the tributes, “even though I haven’t said this will be [the last season]. I’m going to wait and see the last couple of weeks, how my body feels and if I continue to see improvement and I’m still having fun, we’ll see.”
There have been several occasions when he talked about the overall youth of the Mavericks. Doncic, who leads the current Dallas roster in points, assists, rebounds and steals, is 19. The 7-3 newcomer Kristaps Porzingis is 23. Jalen Brunson, Dorian Finley-Smith, Dwight Powell, Max Kleber and Jaren Jackson have an average age of 25. Or as Nowitzki says, “The future is bright.”
“I’d love to be there for the young guys one more year,” Dirk told ESPN. “I think Luka and KP, if they stay healthy, stay together, they should be a great combo. They should play great off each other. Both have an incredible skill set for their size, incredible playmaking ability for their size. But it all depends on how my body feels.”
It seems apparent what his preference is. If he wanted to retire, he would simply announce it. Mentally and emotionally, he wants to play. Over the past 21 years, Nowitzki has proven conclusively how dedicated he is to the game. He is the classic gym rat – first to practice; last to leave.
He loves the camaraderie of the locker room – the relationships with players, coaches and members of the front office. That is hard to give up.
Playing 82 games is a grind, but the NBA lifestyle is a great one – first class hotels, traveling on a luxurious team plane, and competing with the best basketball players in the world. It’s a great job.
There is the reality that he may decide his body simply can’t make it one more year. The mind may be saying “play” but the body has shut down – at least the basketball part of it.
During the last two decades, no one ever expected Dirk Nowitzki to outscore Chamberlain or rank behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Michael Jordan in scoring. From his modest start, he has made himself one of the greatest players in history. He has been a man full of surprises.
So it shouldn’t be surprising if he has one more left.
