It’s a sad time to be living in when Dirk Nowitzki’s season high in points is just 23, considering that he played seven straight seasons where he averaged 23 points per game or more. Then again, it’s also a happy time to be living in when 39-year-old Dirk Nowitzki can continue to give us vintage Dirk performances like nothing has changed. These are both sad times and happy times.
I don’t think there’s any way that Dirk doesn’t come back for his twentieth NBA season. Twenty is a nice, even number that ends with a zero. His grandkids will be way more impressed with him saying “Ich habe zwanzig jahren in der NBA spielen” than “Ich habe neunzhen jahren in der NBA spielen”. It’s just a way better number, plus he’ll be forty years old when he does it, which is another nice round number. And if he can be moderately effective at scoring the ball at this age, his body would have to totally fall apart on him for him to not be a decent scorer at that age.