While he hasn’t indicated what he plans to do either way, the Dallas Mavericks are using Tuesday night’s home finale as an opportunity to honor Dirk Nowitzki in the event he decides to retire. It wouldn’t be the last time we see Nowitzki in a Mavs uniform — the team plays on Wednesday night in San Antonio to close the year — but it may be the last time he takes the floor at the American Airlines Center.
As such, Dallas owner Mark Cuban had made it clear that Tuesday would be a celebration of Nowitzki’s historic tenure in Dallas, even if Dirk wouldn’t like having the spotlight on him all evening. We’ll find out what exactly Cuban has in mind once the game starts, but as it turns out, Nowitzki couldn’t even show up at the arena without it being a big deal.
Employees of both the AAC and the Mavericks formed a gigantic tunnel for Nowitzki’s arrival, doling out high fives and words of encouragement to the future Hall of Fame big man.
Hundreds of @AACenter staff greeted @swish41 as he arrived! 💙 pic.twitter.com/K4NBDj9igV
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) April 9, 2019
there were literally hundreds of mavs and arena employees lined up to welcome Dirk to tonight’s game pic.twitter.com/oyr9J9tbO7
— tim cato (@tim_cato) April 9, 2019
The human tunnel was so long that Nowitzki couldn’t pull his car all the way up to where he usually drops it off.
players usually drive their cars down that tunnel to the security checkpoint and valet. Dirk got out of his car and walked it, high fiving everyone for like 500 feet.
— tim cato (@tim_cato) April 9, 2019
Everyone loves Dirk, and this sort of thing establishes how important he was to everyone in and around the Mavericks franchise. Of course, it’s still possible he comes back one more year, and we can probably assume that if he hangs them up after next season, we’ll see this human tunnel again.
