Ranking the 30 best NBA seasons from players over 35 years old
. PF. Dallas Mavericks. Dirk Nowitzki. 21. player. 79
The 30 best NBA seasons from players over 35 years old — 21. Dirk Nowitzki, 2013-14 (35)
The Dallas Mavericks have been around for four decades, and for the first two were a fairly bad team. They made the playoffs just six times in their first 20 seasons, changing coaches seven times. Then they drafted Dirk Nowitzki, and everything changed. The German power forward broke defenses with his combination of size and shooting, and the Mavericks proceeded to make the playoffs 15 of the next 16 seasons with Nowitzki, winning a title in 2011.
By the 2013-14 season, Nowitzki was 35 but still scorching opposing defenses. He dropped 21.7 points per game, including 39.8 percent from deep on 4.1 attempts per game. If he made four more shots over the course of the season, one of them a 3-pointer, he would have been one of the early entrants to the 50/40/90 club of shooting splits (field goal, 3-point and free-throw percent).
Nowtizki finished in the top-10 in offensive rating, offensive win shares, true shooting percentage and offensive box plus/minus. In a grueling Southwest Division they finished with 49 wins, which was only fourth in the division but would have been the 3-seed in the entire Eastern Conference. They took the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs to seven games in the first round, which was two games further than the Miami Heat got in the NBA Finals.
Only two players have hit more 3-pointers after turning 35 than Nowitzki, and only three scored more points. 2013-14 was his last truly dominant season, his last one with MVP votes. Even at 35 Nowitzki was still schooling opponents with shot fakes and one-legged turnaround elbow jumpers. The man could shoot, and he did just that as he pioneered a new world for the modern NBA.