Home » Sports » Basketball
Mavs’ Nowitzki joins elite 30,000 NBA club
Print Edition
GERMAN star Dirk Nowitzki became only the sixth player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points on Tuesday as the Dallas Mavericks cruised to victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Nowitzki, who needed just 20 points to reach the milestone heading into the game, reached the mark in the second quarter with a fadeaway jump shot.
The 38-year-old now joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain as the only men to make 30,000 points in the National Basketball Association.
Nowitzki’s landmark scoring electrified the Mavericks’ American Airlines Center stadium, with the veteran mobbed by a group of teammates and team owner Mark Cuban.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver paid tribute to Nowitzki’s achievement in a statement, hailing the Mavericks star as “a model player and terrific ambassador for our game”.
“This latest accomplishment further establishes his legacy as one of the NBA’s greatest players,” Silver said in a statement.
Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James — who with just over 28,300 career points could become the next player to break 30,000 — also issued a salute via social media, breaking off from dinner at his home to record a video message.
“I gotta congratulate Dirk Nowitzki on putting up 30,000 points. I’m watching the game right now. Congratulations,” James said on a video tweeted by Uninterrupted. “There’s no way I was missing this moment. Hopefully I can join you at some point, big fella. Salute.”
Dallas eventually eased to a 122-111 victory in Tuesday’s game, improving to 27-36 to remain on the fringes of the race for postseason places.
Nowitzki confirmed last week he plans to see out the full term of his two-year contract with the Mavericks, which will take his remarkable career into a 20th season next year.
Nowitzki played in only six of the Mavs’ opening 29 games this season after an Achilles problem. He is averaging 13.6 and 6.4 rebounds over 34 games.
If he returns for a 20th season, Nowitzki would match the record set by Los Angeles Lakers star Bryant, who played 20 seasons with one franchise before retiring last year.
Also on Tuesday, Russell Westbrook exploded for the highest-scoring game of his career with 58 points, but it was not enough to stop the Oklahoma City Thunder from falling to a pulsating 121-126 defeat to the Portland Trail Blazers at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
In the day’s other game, it was: Wizards 131, Suns 127.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
