The 2018-19 NBA season for the Dallas Mavericks has been a beautiful celebration of the past combined with giddy excitement for the future.
Most teams tend to have a specific direction heading into any given season. Some prefer to milk what they have until there’s nothing left, while other organizations set their sights on the coming years ahead.
The Dallas Mavericks accomplished both in 2018-19, content to let basketball icon and future Hall-of-Famer Dirk Nowitzki run out the clock on his celebratory career until he chose to hang it up for good, while at the same time gifting the keys to the franchise to a 20-year-old international phenom named Luka Doncic.
Together, the two would go on to produce most of what would make this season special for the Mavericks in what was overall an exciting regular season, despite their 33-49 record that put them outside of the playoff picture for the third consecutive year.
This was the last Dallas will ever see of Dirk on the court, yet it was also the first taste of a player with one of the brightest futures in the NBA today in Doncic. It was the past and future merging together in the present — a beautiful handoff for a Mavericks team that holds itself to the highest of standards on the court.