DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki was honored as just the fourth player in the franchise to have his jersey retired on Wednesday night, joining Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, and Brad Davis.
However, it was revealed that Nowitzki will also be the first player in Mavs history to receive another honor -- a statue immortalizing him that will stand in front of the American Airlines Center.
"This will be in front of the arena, and the next arena, and the next arena." Cuban said during the ceremony. "And it is going to be big. But more than anything else, from myself, my family, to your family, to Holger, to all of your teammates always, to the Nelsons who helped bring you here, to everybody that made all of this so special, thank you, Dirk. This is not because you won us a championship, this is because of who you are, what you have done, and we always want to recognize greatness."
Nowitzki, of course, played 21 seasons for the Mavericks, the most by any player in the history of any franchise in the NBA.
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Nowitzki ended his Mavericks career as an NBA champion, an NBA Finals MVP, a regular-season MVP, a 14-time NBA All-Star, an 11-time All-NBA player, and a member of the exclusive 50-40-90 club -- something achieved only 13 times in the history of the NBA.
Dirk also became just the 7th player in NBA history to score over 30,000 points and sits at No. 6 all-time in between Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan with 31,560 points.
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