When the No. 41 jersey of Dirk Nowitzki flew above the floor at American Airlines Center on Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks were giving one of the top honors for an NBA player to the biggest legend in their franchise history.

Nowitzki deserves every part of it after playing 21 seasons, the longest in league history, scoring 31,560 points, the sixth-most in NBA history, and winning the only Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy for the Mavericks.

Usually, people would use the word "loyalty" to describe the relationship between Nowitzki and the Mavericks, but what they have is way more special than that.

Host: Li Xiang

Guest: Matthew Watson

Cover designer: Feng Yuan

Chief editor: Chen Ran

Supervisor: Zhang Shilei