There are 23 games left in the regular season. Dirk Nowitzki needs 92 points to pass Wilt Chamberlain and secure 6th place in the career point total leaderboard (he also needs 191 to pass LeBron again, assuming LeBron dies right now and doesn’t rise again on the third day). The question on everybody’s minds: can he do it? Can Nowitzki use his last strength to pass the ultimate OG statpadder in the all-time rankings?
This game really helped. 15 points is a lot when you only need about 100. If he averages 4 points per game from here on out, without missing any games (that’s the big caveat), he’ll sneak ahead of Chamberlain. He’s averaging 5 on the season, so that’s a good sign. And you know that if he’s anywhere close, he’s gonna start chucking shots to get there. That may sound out of character for Dirk, but he knows what’s going on. He knows how is legacy will look if he passes the dude who once got his picture taken with a piece of paper with “100” written on it.
And if he doesn’t get there, there’s nothing that says he can’t come back next year. I looked through the whole CBA and also several lengthy US laws regarding retirement policy, and none of it says that Dirk Nowitzki can’t come back for a record-breaking 22nd season.