Two-hundred and three.

That’s how many teammates Dirk Nowitzki has played with, a final figure now that his illustrious career has finally ended. From 1998 to 2019, that’s how many players – plus one for Nowitzki himself – suited up for the Dallas Mavericks and played at least one regular season minute. You can see the entire list here, with a massive thank you to Basketball-Reference.

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This is my fifth season ranking Nowitzki’s teammates, and the last one. (Here’s the first, second, third, fourth.) In previous seasons, I only ranked his teammates since the 2011 championship. The point of the article varied; it was entertainment, and it sparked debate, but it also showed how the Mavericks never really gave Nowitzki another chance at any meaningful post-title contention. Seriously, you could look at Raymond Felton and say, “Oh, yeah, that was the 23rd-best teammate Dirk played with since 2011.” Or, “Vince Carter? Where in the teammates top-10 does he rank?” And no one would laugh at you, not when considering teammates since 2011.

Can anyone scientifically prove that Justin Dentmon, Pierre Jackson, Jonathan Gibson and Josh Akognon were all different players? Can someone tell me one meaningful fact about Mark Bryant, whose Mavericks career lasted 101 minutes? What about Dan Dickau? Or Darrick Martin? Hell, are we certain Rodrick Rhodes isn’t an NBA 2K create-a-player?

Let’s discuss.

How many players is 203?

Even for 21 seasons, it’s a lot.

Kobe Bryant played with 142 players in his 20-year Los Angeles career, and Karl Malone just 98 teammates across 18 years with Utah. Tim Duncan, after 19 seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, finished with 139 teammates, while Reggie Miller’s 18-year run with the Indiana Pacers had him finished with 105. Let’s even look at Udonis Haslem, a non-superstar who has spent 16 straight seasons in Miami. He has had 130 teammates; with five more seasons, he might approach 160 or 170, but probably not 203.

Roster expansions, 10-day contracts, and two-way contracts have increased player movement around the league over the past decades. Dallas has always had one of the most pragmatic front offices in the league, and it has sometimes used empty roster spots as a rotating tryout. The team has famously broken up teams too soon (the 2011 offseason), arguably sent players away too soon (Steve Nash), but also valued longevity (J.J. Barea and Devin Harris). Still, that’s so many teammates.

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Who was Nowitzki’s best teammate?

The only arguments are for Jason Terry, Steve Nash, Michael Finley, and … Luka Doncic? Terry has the most win shares (60.5), followed by Finley (48.2) and Nash (42.7), although that’s largely because he spent eight seasons with the team. But if you isolate for one year, Finley was the best, averaging 22.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 42.2 minutes during his 1999-00 campaign, Nowitzki’s sophomore season. By the next season, Nowitzki had surpassed him, and Finley never reached those same peaks.

Those Finley statistics above probably makes you think about Doncic, whose rookie year numbers were remarkably similar in significantly fewer minutes. He wasn’t the physical defender or quite as efficient in his rookie year as Finley was in the best season of his career. Doncic, obviously, in one season, cannot compare to the other three. But boy, in 10 years, it sure feels like Doncic will be the second-best Maverick in franchise history and it won’t even be close. That he played this one season with Nowitzki feels somewhat significant, just from a historical standpoint.

Nash’s argument really isn’t that he was Nowitzki’s best teammate, but his most important. Nash was his first friend once he came stateside. Those two, and their infamous haircuts, were standing next to each other at the introductory press conference. It was Nash who first developed the two-man game with Nowitzki, and Nash who made passes to Nowitzki when he began pushing the boundaries of what 7-footers could do. Where would Nowitzki be without him?

But it’s Jason Terry; it has to be. That’s who spent the longest with prime Nowitzki, who stuck with him through Nowitzki’s lowest moments and then highest highs, who outplayed LeBron James so the franchise could win one of the most iconic championships in the league’s history. Terry was Nowitzki’s best teammate for this photo alone.

Who was Nowitzki’s worst teammate?

Ha, this is an impossible question. Do you think he even remembers who Ben Bentil was? Do Nick Fazekas and his nine minutes played for the Mavericks deserve this slander? What about Randell Jackson or Ray Spalding, who each played one minute for this franchise 19 years apart from each other? According to win shares, there are 28 players who finished in the negative, from Quincy Acy (he was fine!) to Maurice Ager (he won a Grammy!). I didn’t watch all of those 28 players, and it’s not really his fault, but if I had to pick one, it would be Gal Mekel. Boy, did he ever look like he belonged on an NBA basketball court?

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Among those with 100 games played, it’s Dennis Smith Jr., believe it or not. He’s actually the second-worst among any teammate Nowitzki ever played with, although playing 101 games helped his win shares drop that far (to minus-0.6). No one’s rooting against Smith, but it’s a reminder why Dallas moved on so easily.

Yeah, but who was Nowitzki’s worst teammate?

Lamar Odom was the most disappointing, arriving in Dallas after his Sixth Man of the Year award and falling apart. As we learned more about his life-threatening addictions and witnessed him slowly recover over this past decade, at least we started understanding why his time here was so miserable. No one should harbor any sports hate towards him anymore.

That’s not true for Derek Fisher, whose smarmy off-court personality – the dude is now working for a predatory loans company – warrants disgust. He signed with the Mavericks during the 2012-13 season, realized the team wasn’t actually all that good, gave up on the team claiming he “missed his family,” and then signed with the contending Thunder around a month later. Turns out he didn’t miss his family that much.

But the worst is Rajon Rondo, of course, the player who quit on his Dallas teammates during a playoff series, no less, after repeated clashes with head coach Rick Carlisle. Look, Carlisle is admittedly not the easiest coach with which to coexist, especially if you’re a point guard who loves control. But the surly Jason Kidd figured it out and won a championship; Rondo just tanked one of basketball’s most beautiful offenses (at least through the first third of that season) with painful ball-pounding while not really playing defense, the one reason why Dirk Nowitzki wanted him here. When players unanimously vote that you shouldn’t receive playoff shares, you effed up.

Who was the most random player Nowitzki played with?

It’s bizarre to me that Nowitzki played one season with Raja Bell, and wild that he spent three seasons with Vince Carter, even though those years weren’t long ago. He played with Avery Johnson, his future head coach, and Darrell Armstrong, who has been an assistant coach here for years now. He played with Chris Kaman, both with the Mavericks and on the German national team, because Kaman somehow obtained citizenship despite being born in Wyoming, Michigan, a city named after a state. Christian Laettner was briefly a Maverick!

But my pick is Antawn Jamison, who had a 20,000-point career and, in the middle of great seasons, spent one forgettable one in Dallas. That 2003-04 team featured Antawn and Antoine, Jamison and Walker, and it’s clear in retrospect they should have valued the first one over the second. Oh well.

Who were Dirk’s best 10 teammates?

This is my personal and subjective list.

Terry, Nash, and Finley, as discussed above, must go in that order. Finley’s on-court production was better than Nash’s, but Nash’s importance to Nowitzki himself can’t be overlooked. Shawn Marion will always be the most underrated reason why Dallas won in 2011, more so than Tyson Chandler, who everyone already credits for putting them over the top. Still, Chandler remains the best center in franchise history, despite spending only two years here. Barea earns his nod due to 2011, longevity, and his Nowitzki friendship. Kidd warrants inclusion for his contributions to the title, of course, and rounds out that 2011 starting five (well, starting four plus Terry). The numbers don’t do Monta justice, and how electric those two seasons were at times, even though Ellis was undoubtedly a flawed player. Doncic deserves this for his future alone.

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I considered several names at 10: Erick Dampier and Shawn Bradley, two centers who were better than the fanbase remembers them, as well as Josh Howard, Vince Carter, Devin Harris, and briefly Chandler Parsons (don’t throw things at me). It’s sad realizing there aren’t really any other viable candidates. But I chose Barnes, because Barnes, like almost no other player, embodied Nowitzki’s work ethic. They were never close friends, but time and time again, the last two players in the gym, or in the locker room after games, were Barnes and Nowitzki. And while Barnes was certainly a flawed player as well, I know how much mutual respect they share for each other, purely for the work they put into their craft.

Every other Nowitzki teammate, ranked

Ranking 193 more teammates, subjectively, would be an impossible task. I couldn’t tell you anything about the 2001-02 team, to be honest. Instead, this is ranked by win shares. The sortable Basketball Reference search can be found here, and the Google Sheets document that I used here, all on one page.

(Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)