DALLAS _ Sideshows done, Dirk Nowitzki walked off the court at American Airlines Center, and while nobody should take anything for granted, we assume it's not for the last time.
For somebody who's about to turn 39 and saw soon-to-be 37-year-old Tony Romo retire last week so he could become a TV personality and a fantasy camper for a day with the Mavericks, Nowitzki knows only that he still has fun doing this job.
As they say, even the bad days and bad seasons aren't really that bad.
"I love to compete," Nowitzki said. "I play for the playoffs, and obviously I don't have a lot of years left. I enjoyed going out there with the team and going to battle and trying to come out on top."
That wasn't meant as a goodbye speech when he said it. Nowitzki has gone on record as saying that he wants to make it a nice, round 20 seasons with the Mavericks, which he can do by playing showing up for training camp in September and taking part in the 2017-18 season.
He certainly doesn't want to go out like this _ as a member of a lottery team for just the second time in the last 17 seasons.
But Nowitzki also knows there are no guarantees in life. Next season could be worse.
For now, he likely wrapped up his season with another age-defying effort as the Mavericks 109-91 lost to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday.
Nowitzki finished with 21 points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes. His effort did not result in a victory, but the numbers were posted in just three quarters. He sat out the fourth while the younger players tried to pull out a win, but couldn't. At one point, five rookies were on the court at the same time, four of them undrafted free agents.
Nowitzki and several other veterans did not travel with the team to Memphis for Wednesday's season finale.
"It was a rough season for us injury-wise," Nowitzki said. "I said it all year that if J.J. doesn't miss half the season and I don't miss 20 or 30 games, maybe we're right there battling for the eighth spot. So it was a tough year for us. But whoever was out there battled for us."
The problem was that the Mavericks just weren't healthy enough or good enough often enough.
It's left Nowitzki wanting more. And while every player is beat up physically and mentally after 82 games, the process of improving the Mavericks can't start soon enough for their face of the franchise.
"I know he's going to be intent and intense about us upgrading over the summer," owner Mark Cuban said.
In other words, nobody _ least of all Nowitzki _ wants to go through this again next season.
