Ranking the top 50 players in NBA history… 20. Dirk Nowitzki Nowitzki, a German basketball legend, played his entire 21-year NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks after being drafted No. 9 overall in 1998 by the Milwaukee Bucks and traded to Dallas. Standing at 7-feet tall, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards and European players in NBA history. Nowitzki also fundamentally changed the game for big men, making it the norm (and nowadays, the requirement) for centers and power forwards to step outside and shoot threes. Story continues below advertisement Dirk’s career statistics include 31,560 points (20.7 ppg), 11,489 rebounds (7.5 rpg) and 3,651 assists (2.4 apg) over 1,522