Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash's partnership with the Dallas Mavericks ended far too soon. They played six seasons together for the Mavericks, from Nowitzki's rookie year in 1998-99 to Nash's final season with the team in 2003-04, but neither developed into a true impact player until halfway through that tenure, and neither played anywhere near his peak during those last three seasons, either.
Just because Nash's departure to the Phoenix Suns in 2004 robbed Dallas of years assumed championship contention, though, doesn't mean his time with Nowitzki in Dallas didn't produce its fair share of memories. Case in point: The iconic photos of a drunken Nowitzki and Nash at a local bar after the Mavericks were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2003 the playoffs.
In a sprawling oral history of the recently-retired Nowitzki's career by Zac Crain of D Magazine, both he and Nash commented on that fateful night at Woody's tavern
Nash: It was a regular night. The only thing that made it different is that someone had a camera. Will they ever go away? I hope not. Classic.
Nowitzki: It was different back then. The Mavericks, in the ’90s, had a tough decade. We’d go somewhere all the time, and people were like, “Oh, you’re tall,” but they had no idea who I was. And Steve, obviously being so small, he could just blend in.
Dirk Nowitzki, who won a title with Dallas in 2011, finally hung it up at the conclusion of 2018-19, playing 21 seasons with the Mavericks – a league record for the most time a single player has spent with one team.
Nash retired in 2015. The two-time MVP was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame three years later.
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