There reached a certain point in Dirk Nowitzki’s career where Dallas Mavericks fans started feeling nervous. Sometime around 2008—after the crushing disappointment of the 2006 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, and the catastrophe of the 2007 first round exit against the Golden State Warriors.
There were two fears. The first, that Nowitzki would remain with the Mavericks his whole career, but not win a championship. History would forget his greatness simply because of bad matchups and bad luck. He would fall into that NBA abyss of players who were considered great, “but.