Dirk Joins Elite Company

Scoring, its the way to win games in professional sports. The NBA is no different from any of the other big four sports in that you need to score points in order to be able to win a game. When a player can hit 10,000 or more points in a career it means they've been a productive player in their careers. Same thing with 20,000 points. But when you hit 30,000 points in your career,that's hitting a magical number. Only five players in the history of basketball have hit that mark. That was until Tuesday night, when that club jumped to six members. Dirk Nowitzki joined that elite club, now sitting with 30,005 career points. He hit the magic number against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The other members of that elite 30,000 point club include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Julius Erving scored over 30,000 points in his career, but that was combined between the ABA and NBA. Nowitzki is the first international player to reach that milestone. Hitting the 30,000 point mark further cements his legacy as basketball's greatest player born outside the United States. Now this leads to a big question. Does Dirk crack the top ten all time greatest players ever?

Before we answer that, lets take a look at something else. Dirk is 38 and so far, the 2016-17 season hasn't exactly been so kind to him. Dirk missed all but five of the Mavericks' first 29 games with an Achilles injury and came into Tuesday averaging 13.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, the former his worst mark since his rookie season. His numbers are down, but that I think comes with age and how long a career he's had. Dirk is 38 years old and has played over 1,500 games between the regular season and the playoffs. He's been the face of the Mavericks franchise for a long time now. So the wear and tear has started to break down the big German, There have been moments this year when Dirk has looked like his old self. He's had a few moments that have helped keep Dallas in the fight in the West. They are a game and a half out of the final playoff spot in the West (at the time of this writing).

But still if you look at his entire body of work, Dirk has had an outstanding career. Hitting the 30,000 point mark and becoming just the 6th player in the history of the game to do it is pretty impressive. He might not be at the level of a top ten player all time, at least not trying to compare him to some of the others who have played the game. There's no doubt that he's a top 15 player all time, that is safe to say. He might be just sitting outside the top ten right behind I'd say Hakeem Olajuwon.

So congrats to Dirk on hitting the 30,000 point mark. Not bad for a guy who was traded for Robert "Tractor" Traylor on draft night in 1998!