This is widely expected to be the last season for Dirk Nowitzki in the NBA, after an illustrious 21 seasons exclusively with the Dallas Mavericks. Like most players who stick around the NBA for that long, he’s earned himself a sort of elder statesmanship status, similar to, say, Vince Carter. Basically, that means everybody likes Dirk.
That includes the crowd at TD Garden, who cheered Nowitzki on in what would be his final game played in Boston. He received a standing ovation from the away crowd, and Celtics fans cheered for every Nowitzki jumper.
For sure, part of the reason is that the Celtics were in line for a blowout win over the Mavericks, so buckets by that point were mostly inconsequential. But another aspect of it is that Nowitzki sits at 426 career points scored in the TD Garden, and he needed just one field goal to pass the all-time leader — the much-hated Kobe Bryant.
How crazy would it have been to see Dirk pass Kobe’s record in his final game in Boston? Unfortunately, Nowitzki shot 0-for-10, going scoreless for just the ninth time in his career.
After the game, however, the Celtics showed some love to Dirk. Gordon Hayward loved that the home crowd was cheering Nowitzki on, and coach Brad Stevens said Nowitzki was just one of two opponents that he’d rooted for.
h/t Twitter/espn
