DALLAS — Before he leaves office next summer, Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings had at least one more important item on his bucket list he wanted to complete.
He wanted to give the key to the city of Dallas to Dirk Nowitzki.
Rawlings fulfilled one of the last item on his bucket list during halftime of Wednesday’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets when he represented Nowitzki with the key to the city of Dallas.
“I said before I leave I wanted to do something special for Dirk and if he would allow me to give him the key to the city, and he said of course,” Rawlings said during a press conference. “And the Mavericks decided to do it here at the game, so thank you to the Mavericks’ organization and thank you to Dirk.”
Nowitzki received the honor because of his numerous accomplishments on and off the basketball court during his 20-plus years with the Mavs, which also included many philanthropic endeavors involving needy children.
“I’m very honored, very humbled obviously,” Nowitzki said. “It’s been a long great ride here – 20 years representing the city proudly, the franchise and the city and the fan base with a lot of ups and downs.
“I’ve I’m very honored, very humbled obviously. It’s been a long great ride here – 20 years representing the city proudly, the franchise and the city and the fan base with a lot of ups and downs. I’ve always tried to carry myself right for representing the city the right way and do things the right way, so I’m happy to get this key.”
Rawlings said he first met Nowitzki a few years ago at one of the celebrity baseball games Nowitzki stages in the summer in Frisco when Rawlings was the CEO of Pizza Hut, who sponsored the game.
“I got to play opposite him in a baseball game,” Rawlings said. “There’s a lot of people that just kind of come in and just kind of go back into their privacy. Dirk is a public figure.
“He gets out with folks. The night I got elected mayor, it was his birthday party and we ended up at the same club.”
Nowitki then intervened and happily said: “That was lit!”
Nowitzki helped light up the city of Dallas when he led the Mavs to the 2011 NBA title. He’s also busy during the Christmas holidays putting smiles on kid’s faces at the Children’s Hospital.
“It’s a great honor for him and the organization, for sure,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s a highly prestigious honor.
“When you do what he’s done for two decades, things like this can happen.”
Carlisle was asked where does Nowitzki ranked among the Mt. Rushmore of pro athletes to come through the Dallas area.
“As far as where he is in the pantheon of great Dallas athletes, he’s up there with the best,” Carlisle said. “When you’re talking about the great (Dallas) Cowboys – (Roger) Staubach, (Troy) Aikman, (Emmitt) Smith, all those guys — I don’t want to miss names.
“The (Dallas) Stars have won a championship here – (Mike) Modano, (Brett) Hull and those guys were so great. It’s just wonderful that Dirk’s now viewed with those guys. It’s so well deserved.”
Carlisle them reminisce back to the 2011 championship, which the only one in the Mavs’ history.
“It was a long hard struggle to get to the mountaintop in 2011,” Carlisle said. “There were a lot of obstacles along the way, a lot of disappointments.
“That team caught lightning in a bottle and rode the guy who was the best player on the planet that year.”
That player, Nowitzki, relished the idea of receiving the key to the city of Dallas.
“I told somebody in the locker room I don’t even have a key to my own house,” Nowitzki said. “Wifey got the doors locked.”
Nowitzki obviously was showing his self-deprecating side. Rawlings even had to remind him that he doesn’t get free parking or a reduction on his property taxes just because he has the key to the city of Dallas.
Nowitkzi is just the third person to receive a key to the city of Dallas from Rawlings since he became the mayor over seven years ago.
“We gave one to (golf phenom) Jordan Spieth when he had his rookie year and he won the Masters and the U. S. Open,” Rawlings said. “And then Virginia McAlester, who is a great preservationist and an architectural crisis that the United States and really the mother of modern day Swiss Avenue.
“But it’s not something that I do on a regular basis. It’s got to be someone really that’s a very, very special person. It’s sort of one of those things when they’re great there’s no debate, and this guy is that.”
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