Dirk Nowitzki has spent his entire NBA career with the Mavs. This season will be his 21st with the franchise, making him the longest-tenured player for any one team since Kobe Bryant's 20-year stint with the Los Angeles Lakers. Whether or not Dirk will retire after this season remains to be seen, but he says it's been “an unbelievable ride.”
“When I came out of Germany 20 years ago, if you would have told me I’d be [mentioned] with some of the greats, I would have said, ‘You’re out of your mind,'” Dirk Nowitzki tells Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. “It’s been an unbelievable ride. I’m honored and blessed I was able to do it injury-free for a long time.”
The Mavs legend, now 40 years of age, has racked up several prestigious accolades over the course of his career in the NBA, including one championship (2011), one league MVP (2007), one Finals MVP (2011), 13 All-Star selections, and 12 All-NBA Team nods (four First Team, five Second Team, and three Third Team). And just for the record, he's currently sixth on the NBA's all-time scoring list with 31,187 points.
In a whopping 1,471 career games played in the NBA, The Big German, as Nowitzki is known, has racked up averages of 21.2 points on 47.2 percent shooting from the field (38.3 percent from beyond the arc), 7.7 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 34.4 minutes per outing. Last season, however, Nowitzki posted averages of 12 points and 5.7 rebounds — his lowest numbers since his rookie season.
Nowitzki will go down as one of the best big men to ever play in the NBA. His one-legged fall-away jumper is still being imitated to this day. His legacy is already set in stone, whether he decides to retire after this season or not.
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