Last night in Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki added another achievement to his ever growing list of accomplishments. The 39-year old Mavs lifer became just the sixth player in NBA history to play at least 50,000 minutes in his NBA career.
Heading into last night's game against the Clippers, which the Mavs lost 104-101, Dirk needed to play seven minutes in order to join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd and Elvin Hayes in the 50K minute club. He reached the milestone in the second quarter, and finished with 12 points in 25 minutes of action.
According to ESPN, Nowitzki now ranks fifth all time in minutes, having passed Hayes, who played exactly 50,000 minutes in his Hall of Fame career. Abdul-Jabbar holds the record for minutes, with 57,446.
Nowitzki, who is now in his 20th season with the Mavericks, reached the milestone while wearing a misspelled jersey which read "Nowitkzi." He told reporters after the game, per ESPN, "I usually look at my jersey, so I never even saw it myself. It happens. I guess it kind of sums up our season."
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So far this season Nowitzki has not missed a game and is on pace to join Michael Jordan and John Stockton as the only other players to play all 82 regular season games at the age of 39 or older, according to ESPN.
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