Mavericks retire no. 41 jersey of Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki (Scott Mecum, Wikimedia Commons)

According to Tim McMahon of ESPN on Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks have retired the number 41 of their star power forward, Dirk Nowitzki of Wurzburg, Germany. However in an interesting twist, Nowitzki was honoured in a postgame ceremony rather than a pregame ceremony.

It was a big night for the Mavericks as they upset the Golden State Warriors, the best team in the NBA at the moment by a score of 99-82. It was another European on the Mavericks who had a solid performance as Luka Doncic of Ljubljana, Slovenia had a game-high 26 points.

But this night belonged to Nowitzki, who had the nickname in his career of German Jesus according to Basketball Reference. In 1522 career games with Dallas from 1998 to 2019, he averaged 20.7 points, and 7.5 rebounds, and was a NBA All-Star 14 times.

In 2007, Nowitzki was the NBA’s most valuable player. He averaged 24.6 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game, to become the first and only Mavericks player in franchise history to be named the NBA MVP.

Then in 2011, Nowitzki received another accolade as he was the most valuable player in the NBA Finals. Nowitzki averaged 26 points per game and 9.7 rebounds per game as the Mavericks beat the Miami Heat in six games.

Among the statistical categories Nowitzki is the Mavericks all-time leader include games played (1522), minutes played (51368), field goals (11169), two-point field goals (9187), three-point field goals (1982), free throws (7240), offensive rebounds (1468), defensive rebounds (10021), total rebounds (11489), blocks (1281), and points (31560). Nowitzki is actually sixth all-time in NBA scoring, as he only trails Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

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