NBA All-Time Rank No. 20: Dirk Nowitzki

Ranking the top 50 players in NBA history…

20. Dirk Nowitzki

Nowitzki, a German basketball legend, played his entire 21-year NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks after being drafted No. 9 overall in 1998 by the Milwaukee Bucks and traded to Dallas.

Standing at 7-feet tall, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards and European players in NBA history.

Nowitzki also fundamentally changed the game for big men, making it the norm (and nowadays, the requirement) for centers and power forwards to step outside and shoot threes.

Dirk’s career statistics include 31,560 points (20.7 ppg), 11,489 rebounds (7.5 rpg) and 3,651 assists (2.4 apg) over 1,522 games, making him the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history and sixth on the all-time scoring list at retirement.

Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 15 playoff appearances, including their first NBA Finals in 2006 and their only championship in 2011, earning Finals MVP that year.

Nowitzki’s individual accolades include the 2007 NBA MVP award, making him the first European to win it, 14 All-Star selections and 12 All-NBA Team honors.

Nowitzki’s signature one-legged fadeaway jump shot and versatility were key to his success, and he holds numerous Mavericks franchise records.

Internationally, he led Germany to a bronze at the 2002 FIBA World Championship and a silver at EuroBasket 2005, earning MVP in both.

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023 and selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.

But who ranks ahead of Nowitzki at No. 19 all-time?