Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki owns the longest career of any NBA player who stuck with one franchise, having played 21 seasons for the Mavs. Because he played into his 40s, many younger NBA observers only saw the veteran when he was well past his prime and a less impactful player. Dirk Nowitzki's own children fall into that category.

Nowitzki and his wife, Jessica Olsson, welcomed their first child in July 2013. Malika, the couple's oldest child, didn't even celebrate her sixth birthday before Nowitzki's Hall of Fame career officially came to an end. Max, Nowitzki's middle child, was just four years old when the greatest shooting big man of all time called it a career. It's no wonder why Nowitzki's kids only remember him as a slow-footed, jump shooter.

“They always watched me towards the end of my career and all they know is ‘Papa, you were so slow,' then I gotta go to YouTube and it's all grainy still,” Nowitzki joked, via FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth.

Even if he wasn't a speed demon in his prime, Nowitzki was certainly far more athletic than during his final days in Dallas. Ankle and knee surgeries limited the Mavs' all-time leading scorer in his final seasons.

Nowitzki averaged career-lows of 7.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game in the 2018-2019 season, the final year of his career. From 2001-2012, Nowitzki scored more than 21.5 points per game in every single season. The first-ballot Hall of Famer scored 24.6 points on better than 50% shooting during his 2007 NBA MVP campaign.

Nowitzki enters the Hall of Fame with 31,560 points, putting him sixth on the NBA's all-time scoring list at the time of his 2023 induction.