When will Luka Doncic take Dirk Nowitzki's title of the greatest Dallas Mavericks player in history? In the eyes of former Mav J.J. Barea, never.

Nowitzki still remains the all-time face of the Mavericks as the only player in franchise history to lead the team to a championship. He also has Dallas' lone MVP for both the Finals and regular season as well as franchise records in numerous stats, many of which he's in his own galaxy for. Doncic can join him in the FMVP club if he can lead them on a comeback against the Boston Celtics but until he does that or wins a future title, Nowitzki will retain the throne as the Mavs' greatest ever.

Barea, who played 11 seasons of his 14 NBA seasons with the Mavericks and won the title with Dallas, swore that Nowitzki would always be the best Mavericks player ever. In an appearance on FanDuel TV's show Run it Back, Barea let it be heard that Dallas will always belong to the Tall Baller from the G.

“Luka could be the best player in the world forever and Dirk would still be the [greatest] Mav of all time,” Barea said. “He made the Mavericks what it is.”

Dirk Nowitzki will always be greatest Mavericks player ever, J.J. Barea says

From Barea's angle, it makes sense why Dirk will always have that title. He was the franchise’s first superstar and the first to take it to the mountaintop. No one can ever do that again. It's something he'll always have and is extremely meaningful.

The Mavs made a few nice playoff runs in the 1980s behind Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper and Mark Aguirre but could never make it out of the Western Conference. They gave it a great go for roughly a decade before Dallas fell into a playoff drought. Nowitzki changed the franchise’s fortunes for the better. The trajectory he set the team on is still in place.

Nowitzki paved the way for Doncic to take over the team, which he did very quickly and under the guidance of No. 41. If he can make the Mavericks a dynasty, perhaps it will become impossible to argue Nowitzki over him. But Dirk will always be recognized as the first superstar the franchise had and the leader of its first champion.

Whether or not anyone believes Doncic can surpass Nowitzki or not is up for debate as of now. But what is clear is that 1) winning this championship would make it much harder to argue Dirk over Luka and 2) Nowitzki, Barea and all the former Mavs out there would like to see Doncic challenge Nowitzki by coming back and winning this title. The quest to do so starts Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center in Game 3.