NBA Great Dirk Nowitzki Officially Retires
Image Taken by Ariawna Talton
© 2019 Miss Ari Photography
Dallas - The Dallas Mavericks didn’t have the season they hoped to have. Some new faces to the team quickly became former Mavericks. The team and its new members did indeed gel well, but after they were far removed from playoff contention.
Tuesday night, however, was not at all about what went wrong during the 2018 season. This night was about the big German guy who captured Dallas hearts and remained loyal to the one organization for 21 years.
Dirk Nowitzki has officially retired a Dallas Maverick. After 21 brilliant seasons, numerous records broken, several different teammates (all with the same positive narrative about him), silent gestures of charity and an NBA Championship - Nowitzki has played his final game in the American Airlines Center. As of Wednesday night, the most impressive 7-footer basketball has seen has played his final NBA game.
Dallas defeated Phoenix 120 – 109 Tuesday night. At one point up by 30 points, the Mavericks almost completely relinquished their lead to a surging young Phoenix team and the ever-so-impressive Jamal Crawford, who had 50 points. Not even a stellar scoring performance by Crawford could steal the attention from #41’s special night.
Each time Nowitzki touched the ball - the fans would rise. When he scored each of his 30 points, the arena erupted. “ONE MORE YEAR” the crowd would cheer.
NBA legends continued to pop up throughout the night, including Hall of Famers Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, Shawn Kemp and Detlef Schrempf - all of whom spoke kind words of Nowitzki during a special tribute.
Former Dallas Mavericks, current and former Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and various other celebrity personalities all made it a priority to be in attendance to celebrate the most accomplished power forward of all time.
Maverick’s team owner Mark Cuban promised to erect a Dirk Nowitzki statue outside of the AAC and assured the crowd that #41’s jersey would indeed be retired.
Overtaken by emotion, Nowitzki shed many tears as teammates and friends surrounded him.
