DALLAS _ The moment occurred much sooner than anyone inside or outside of American Airlines Center fathomed possible.
Needing 20 points Tuesday night to become only the sixth NBA player to score 30,000 career points, Mavericks icon Dirk Nowitzki needed just 9:51 of court time to end the suspense.
Officially, the moment occurred with 10:57 left in the second quarter, when Nowitzki caught a Devin Harris pass on the right baseline, jab-stepped the Lakers' Larry Nance Jr. onto his heels, and arched in a 15-foot fallaway jumper.
Pandemonium enveloped 38-year-old Nowitzki in a bear hug as he trotted down-court, the newest member of an ultra-elite NBA club.
"Thank you, guys," Nowitzki said to the fans in a postgame interview that was broadcast over the American Airlines Center public address system. "It's been a crazy ride, with a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but you guys hung in there with me."
Although Nowitzki already was the No. 6 career scorer in NBA history, the 30,000-point plateau stands as a mythical number, attained only by gods of the sport.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Karl Malone. Kobe Bryant. Michael Jordan. Wilt Chamberlain. Now, Dirk Nowitzki.
"It's just special. It's iconic. He's Dirk," said Mark Cuban, who has owned the Mavericks for 17 of Nowitzki's 19 seasons.
"You look at the guys ahead of him. They're all gifted athletically in some amazing way. That's not Dirk. He made it through effort. And then when he got knocked down, he got up, he made it through effort, he worked harder and harder and harder. That's what makes him special."
Nowitzki scored all 25 of his points during the first half of the Mavericks' 122-111 victory over the Lakers.
The final score scarcely mattered. This night was all about Dirk. The electricity leading to his historic basket, and the resulting explosion of noise that, along with the milestone, was a celebration of Nowitzki's career.
Of the 30K-club members, only Nowitzki, Bryant and Malone scored 30,000 points with one franchise.
"Congratulations to Dirk Nowitzki on joining the NBA's most exclusive 30,000-point club," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. "Throughout his 19 seasons with the Mavericks, Dirk has been a model player and terrific ambassador for our game. This latest accomplishment further establishes his legacy as one of the NBA's greatest players."
Before the game, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle declined to discuss the impending milestone. He said it barely had been discussed among Nowitzki's teammates and coaches.
"This has been like a, gosh, like a slow-moving, gathering weather front, you know?" Carlisle said. "My belief is that there's such a high level of respect for him and the milestone that to talk about it is probably not appropriate."
It was evident, though, from the game's opening moments that Nowitzki wanted to get the suspense out of the way _ and that his teammates wanted this night to be all about him.
Nowitzki hit a 16-foot jumper just 30 seconds into the game. He made a 3-pointer just 32 seconds later. He made his first five shots from the field, two of them 3-pointers, while scoring 14 points during the game's first 5:08.
He exited for rest, then returned to score twice more, finishing the first quarter with 18 points. That tied the highest-scoring first quarter of his career, previously accomplished on Feb. 7, 2007 against Memphis.
In anticipation of the moment, many of the 20,484 fans pulled out their phone cameras to capture it, for posterity.
Although this moment was celebrated on this night, really it was nearly two decades in the making, starting with when mop-haired 19-year-old Dirk traveled from his native Wurzburg, Germany to visit Dallas for the first time.
Officially, The Moment occurred in the 1,377th regular-season game and 48,209th minute of his career.
At the first dead ball after The Moment, Nowitzki's teammates mobbed him near midcourt. Nowitzki got a big embrace from Carlisle as a video montage of Nowitzki's career played on the Jumbotron.
The celebration, turned out, was just beginning.
"I keep on saying it: He is the Mavericks and the Mavericks are him," Cuban said. "I know it's corny, cliche-ish, but it's true."
Cuban was asked where Nowitzki ranks on the list of all-time NBA greats.
"I think he's top-10 but everybody will argue about it. A lot of people don't trust my judgment these days on that topic. I mean, he changed the game. There's a shot that people have taken to that they tailor after him. MVP. Finals MVP. Championship. One team. Not a lot of people play in that rarefied air. And obviously being the guy that probably now is the face of international basketball and probably will be for a long time."
