Mavericks’ Donnie Nelson thinks Dirk Nowitzki will play past 40

Dirk Nowitzki showed why he is the ultimate team player once again this offseason taking a team friendly deal that afforded them the ability to sign free agents. Dirk Nowtizki signed a three-year, $25 million deal that will keep him with the Mavericks until he is 39-years-old, but it won’t hurt his bank account as he is one of the league’s highest earners all-time.

Though, it might not be his last contract with the Mavericks. According to Art Garcia of Fox Sports, some in the Mavericks front office think Nowitzki could play beyond the life of that contract into his 40s.

"Mavericks president Donnie Nelson hopes to reward Nowitzki’s “sacrifice” in 2017 with what should be a farewell contract.“He understood that we needed flexibility in order to get the team better,” Nelson said from NBA Summer League. “He’s part of the tapestry of the city of Dallas. He’s really a made man in a lot respects if you think about all the superstars that have come through in all the sports, in terms of basketball it doesn’t get any better than Dirk.“He just made a decision to end his career there. Hopefully we can tag another contract on to that. If he drinks from the same water cooler as Jason Kidd, he’ll play until he’s 42.”"

It all depends on if the Mavericks can get some help to relieve some of the pressure off of Nowitzki, like how the San Antonio Spurs have been able to keep Tim Duncan at or under 30 minutes per game over the past four seasons. Nowitzki averaged 32.9 minutes last season, but hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down averaging 21.7 points per game and shooting 49.7 percent from the field.