Dallas Mavs icon Dirk Nowitzki was en-route to playing 80-plus games during last season after coming off an injury-marred campaign in 2016-17, cutting his time short and undergoing a season-ending ankle surgery to clean up bone spurs.

The hope, as Nowitzki quickly announced, was to maximize his time of recovery, allowing him to start what will be his 21st season in the league with a clean bill of health.

The 7-footer recently discussed where he's at health-wise, with only a few days left before the start of training camp.

“The ankle where I had the surgery is actually great,” Dirk Nowitzki, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. “There were two bone spurs that kind of blocked me from doing things. So they took those out and now there's a lot more movement in the ankle. But all the tendons aren't used to moving that much now. Every now and then, it's a little stiff. I scrimmaged a little last week and on Monday and it hasn't really reacted amazing to it. But we're positive that it'll be fine. By the time we get into camp and especially the regular season, I'll be 100 percent.”

If the rest of his rehabilitation goes well, he should be playing for the Mavs to begin the season, even if that means potentially coming off the bench, with the team boasting new talent in DeAndre Jordan and Luka Doncic.

Nevertheless, Dirk Nowitzki remains a legend.