I was expecting it, but it still felt like being hit by a runaway bus. On Wednesday morning, on a janky bootleg YouTube livestream, Dirk Nowitzki announced that he had just played his last home game ever. People in Dallas knew better than to dispute what the German wunderkind deserved in all his years of service – so they stood and cheered, perhaps tentatively, knowing that this was indeed the curtain call of the greatest athlete in the history of Dallas.
The 2018-19 NBA season was curious for me in that it was either (a) the most hush-hush retirement plan by an NBA Hall of Famer, or (b) the most elaborate (and successful) attempt by other teams to force the 7-foot monolith into retirement with cheers and pre-planned video montages. Curse you, Doc Rivers. There were always plans for one last year being floated around by media and coaches, which explains why there was never a bookend moment in his NBA Tribute Tour—until today.
I guess I knew all along—which is why I booked a ticket for a Mavs game last January 30 in the middle of a polar vortex in Manhattan.
As a lifelong Dirk fan, I decided I needed to witness him play live before he retires, and as a bonus it would also be fun to see what the whole Luka Magic thing was about. I contemplated booking a flight to Dallas to watch a home game, but due to Dirk’s erratic rest schedule, there was no way to ensure he would play in any particular game.
The Knicks game made sense because Dirk has often quoted, along with other NBA superstars, that MSG is still one of the most enjoyable places to play in. The game also would have been his last ever in New York; plus, it was the first game in a back-to-back. If there was a game that would force Dirk’s competitive juices to start flowing, this was it.
It was a 114-90 shellacking of the listless New York Knicks on their home floor, a mere two days before the internet would erupt to news of the Porzingis trade that would decimate Dallas’s starting five and would threaten the safety of everyone within a three-block vicinity of Madison Square Garden.
While Doncic netted the most pedestrian 16-8-5 game you will see (on sub .400 shooting), Dirk went off in an 11-minute microwave stint where he shot 5-7 to the tune of 14 points. Those were the most exciting 11 minutes of basketball I’ve ever watched.
In retrospect, that Knicks game was indeed the perfect game to witness the summary of Dirk Nowitzki’s legacy. Despite the Knicks being the brightest dumpster fire in basketball history (recent or otherwise), their embattled fans know their basketball - they respect the game and know how to appreciate legends once they hit their parquet.
Like a microcosm of Dirk’s final home game in Dallas, the Knicks fans treated Dirk like royalty: they cheered whenever he walked into the scorer’s table for a substitution, they screamed when he was fed the ball in his favorite elbow mid-range spot, and they celebrated when he swished a clean shot. Heck, they even cheered him for an airball.
This shows the extent of the impact Dirk has made to the basketball landscape. That there are aspiring Asian sportswriters flying in from Manila on a subzero degree night to see a European play against the worst team in the NBA. That the greatest sports arena in American history is willing to explode when an opposing star player makes a shot. That dozens of fans queue into aisles wearing Slovenian team jerseys—a feat that would otherwise not be as accepted if Dirk hadn’t wandered off from the Wurzburg X-rays and paved the way for European fanhood. That people would still pine for a mid-range back-to-the-basket fadeaway in an era where shots not made in the paint or behind the arc would be considered taboo. That countless Filipino players can (and will) be caught wearing #41 jerseys in slipshod pickup games across suburban cities.
That frigid January evening, there were no video montages, no surprise time outs, no jersey exchanges, and no celebrity meet and greets. It was just Dirk subbing out amidst a rabid fanbase and fulfilling his role as a Glorious Basketball Aberration—a lanky, goofy, strangely hip-hop friendly German who changed the way the game is played, and paved the way for the modern, high-octane, shoot-first game we see and enjoy today.
Today we found out that Dirk is stepping down from active duty; soon enough we will find out that no Kristaps Porzingises nor Kevin Durants will ever take his place.