Dirk Nowitzki is 38 years old. He's been in the NBA for 19 seasons and "father time" is catching up with him fast. The Mavericks have the worst record in the league right now at 4-15 and Dirk has played only five games because of a sore Achilles tendon. But despite their current circumstance, he's still feeling confident that there's still a lot left in his tank.
"I'm all in. I want to play," Dirk said. "There's still a lot of season left. December just started. We know that there's a lot of games coming, so hopefully sometime soon I'll be out there and then stay out there," he added.
Dirk Nowitzki has done it all with the Mavericks. He's the sixth leading scorer of all time in the NBA, has played in 15 playoff appearances, he's contributed to 12 50-win seasons, two finals trip and a championship.
Dirk Nowitzki just signed a 2-year deal worth $50 million but that's more like a thank you gift to him Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban. If he decides to hang it up now, nothing will be taken away from his legacy no matter how bad the Mavericks' season will end up.
But Dirk didn't get to where he is now if he didn't have pride. And that pride is convincing him that they can still save their season if they can all stay healthy. JJ Barea, Deron Williams, Devon Harris, and Andrew Bogut have missed some games and it's definitely a big factor when you go into a game with some key players missing.
In the five games that Dirk Nowitzki played, he averaged 12.2 points and 6.4 rebounds. Rick Carlisle does not expect him anymore to lead the team in scoring, that responsibility has been handed to offseason acquisition, Harrison Barnes.
He's not the same Dirk that carried the Mavericks to NBA finals appearances. But as long as his one-footed fadeaway jumper still finds its way through the net, then he can still be effective.
"Hopefully I'll be back soon and we can run off some wins," Nowitzki said. "That's the only way I look at it. Everything else is nonsense," he added.
