Hot shots
And to think Dirk Nowitzki almost stopped at 385 points, which is what he scored as an overwhelmed rookie in 1998-99. Things were so difficult that season for the German, then 19, that he considered giving up on the NBA and retreating back to Europe. Twelve seasons later, he is the 34th player to reach the NBA's 20,000-point milestone.
"Looking back 11 years ago, none of you guys would have thought I could have scored a thousand, probably," Nowitzki said after he reached the 20K mark Wednesday night against the Lakers. "That's pretty amazing how far I got in 12 years.
"But my main goal now is to win a championship," he said, "and I think all the individual goals will be nice once my career is over. I can look back and I've scored this many points, I got an MVP, all that is nice; X amount of All-Star Games, all that is sweet; but as for now, it doesn't mean that much to me. I'm still trying to chase my dream, and that's winning the championship. All that other stuff is great once my career is over."
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