Seahawks

Dirk Nowitzki wiped a tear as his No. 41 rose slowly above the court not far from the podium where the franchise icon for the Dallas Mavericks had held it together through a 20-minute speech until it was time to thank the fans.
&ldquo;I almost made it through without getting emotional,&rdquo; Nowitzki said moments before the banner-raising finale of the ceremony to retire his number after his old team's 99-82 victory over Golden State on Wednesday night. &ldquo;But you guys get me every time.&rdquo;
The concourse of Dirk Nowitzki's old home arena displayed memorabilia that fans lined up to see, and waited in some cases even longer to buy his jersey. They chanted &ldquo;MVP! MVP!&rdquo; just about every time they saw him, live or on the video boards above the court, all night.
The Mavericks were honoring Nowitzki nearly three years after he announced his retirement on the court at the American Airlines Center after the final home game of the 2018-19 season. He played one more game at San Antonio.
The 43-year-old Nowitzki played a record 21 seasons with the same franchise, beating the late Kobe Bryant's previous mark of 20 with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history led the Mavericks to their only championship in 2011 and their only other NBA Finals appearance five years before that. The big German changed the game as the best 7-foot shooter from 3-point range.
Eight players from that title team, including current Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, attended the ceremony. Kidd spoke along with Commissioner Adam Silver and owner Mark Cuban, the one-time season-ticket holder who Nowitzki remembered from his first two seasons before Cuban bought the team in 2000.
&ldquo;I've got one question,&rdquo; Kidd said, setting up a nod to the COVID-19 circumstances that are leading to 10-day contracts all over the NBA as fill-ins for players sidelined by health and safety protocols. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re giving out 10 days. You want to come back?&rdquo;
Nowitzki leaned in to his wife, Jessica, their three kids standing with them, as the banner was raised with his number, name and the years he played (1998-2019) as sparklers sprayed toward the court.
Cuban and Nowitzki's heir apparent, 22-year-old European star Luka Doncic, wore T-shirts with a picture of the baby-faced Nowitzki from his introductory news conference after getting drafted going on 24 years ago.
That was after Doncic had scored 26 points to lead the Mavericks over Stephen Curry and the Warriors, who went into the game with the NBA's best record and are now tied at 29-8 with Phoenix.
&ldquo;A night you&rsquo;ll never forget,&rdquo; Doncic said. &ldquo;The Warriors are one of the best teams in the world right now and we did an amazing job. And after that was even more special. To be there in the front row to see that, it was special.&rdquo;
The accolades aren't quite finished for Nowitzki, who helps the club as a consultant and has part of a street near the arena named after him. Nowitzki said during a news conference a day before the jersey retirement that he had just spent time in Chicago with the artist commissioned for a statue that will stand outside the facility.
Cuban unveiled a miniature preview of that statue, which will commemorate Nowitzki's signature one-legged fadeaway jumper. There are already silhouettes of the shot on each end of Dallas' home court.
&ldquo;This is because of who you are, what you&rsquo;ve done and we always want to recognize greatness,&rdquo; Cuban said.
Nowitzki is sixth on the career scoring list with 31,560 points, and the 14-time All-Star also leads the Mavericks in career 3s, rebounds and blocks.
The 2007 NBA MVP and 2011 Finals MVP is the fourth Dallas player to have his number retired after Brad Davis, Rolando Blackman and Derek Harper.
Holger Geschwindner, who discovered Nowitzki in Wurzburg, Germany, and mentored him throughout his career, sat next to Nowitzki's family, not far from Silver on one side of the lectern. Part of the Dallas symphony was on the other side.
&ldquo;You're somebody who's been a pioneer for international players,&rdquo; Silver said. &ldquo;So many players on the court tonight grew up watching you. International players used to be something different in this league.&rdquo;

The Mavericks honored Nowitzki nearly three years after he announced his retirement on the court in Dallas.

Mavs retire Dirk Nowitzki's 41 after win over Warriors

The Oklahoma City Thunder have accumulated quite the collection of draft picks, including some that were procured in last month&rsquo;s trade with the Boston Celtics. In total, the Thunder could have as many as 39 picks (including 18 first-rounders) between now and the 2027 NBA Draft.
That. Is. Unprecedented.
In the 2021 NBA Draft, Oklahoma City has six picks: 6th, 16th, 18th, 34th, 36th and 55th. They&rsquo;ve also been one of the more active teams in trade talks leading up the draft.
While the Thunder may receive more notoriety than anyone else for hoarding draft picks, they&rsquo;re not the only franchise that's doing it. The New Orleans Pelicans have amassed 26 picks in the next seven drafts, and the Houston Rockets have stockpiled 19 picks over that same span.
But there&rsquo;s an uncertainty to collecting draft picks &ndash; namely, picks don&rsquo;t always pan out, even high-end lottery picks. So while it is understandable to assume that tons of draft picks will translate to tons of success, such is not always the case.
To illustrate this point, let&rsquo;s turn our attention to the Atlantic Division in the 2010s.
Pick collecting was a major part of Sam Hinkie and the Philadelphia 76ers&rsquo; &ldquo;Trust-the-Process&rdquo; strategy. Hinkie sparked a revolution as the 76ers&rsquo; general manager by embracing the idea of tanking to streamline the rebuilding process, while simultaneously shipping out talent that didn&rsquo;t fit his timeline (e.g., Jrue Holiday) in exchange for additional draft picks.
In total, Philadelphia made 24 selections between 2013 (the first year in which Hinkie captained the 76ers&rsquo; draft process) and 2017 (the last draft before the 76ers returned to the playoffs).
The jury is still out on Philadelphia&rsquo;s rebuild. Hinkie resigned from his position with the 76ers in 2016, but his philosophy did result in the team drafting two cornerstone pieces in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Also, Hinkie successfully identified quite a few diamonds-in-the-rough who were second-rounders or undrafted free agents such as Jerami Grant (39th), Richaun Holmes (37th), Christian Wood (undrafted), Robert Covington (undrafted) and T.J. McConnell (undrafted). But while the 76ers have had some success in recent years, reaching the Eastern Conference Semifinals in three of the previous four seasons, they have failed to accomplish anything truly meaningful, yet.
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Next up, the Boston Celtics.
After winning the 2008 NBA Finals and remaining competitive in the Eastern Conference for a few seasons, the Celtics and executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge pivoted into a rebuild, trading Kevin Garnett, Paul Piece, and Jason Terry to the Brooklyn Nets for three future first-round picks, the right to swap first-round picks in 2017, and a hodgepodge of players. And while the haul from Brooklyn was clearly the centerpiece of Boston&rsquo;s draft capital, the Celtics continued accumulating picks from various teams. They acquired selections from the Sacramento Kings (14th) and Los Angeles Clippers (20th) in 2019, and they added the 14th pick from the Memphis Grizzlies in 2020.
All told, Boston made 27 selections over the course of seven drafts up-to-and-including 2020. Their rebuild involved more than just draft picks, though, including a trade for Isaiah Thomas in 2015, a trade with Philadelphia in 2017 that netted them Jayson Tatum, and a trade for Kyrie Irving in 2019 in which they sent out a draft pick along with other assets.
But Boston&rsquo;s rebuild didn&rsquo;t result in a championship either. While Ainge stockpiled draft picks like a squirrel hoarding away acorns, he should have been more aggressive in his pursuit of available superstars. Despite an abundance of picks to entice trade partners, they <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/woulda-coulda-shoulda-the-celtics-should-have-a-superteam-right-now">balked at opportunities</a> to trade for Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Jimmy Butler in hopes of adding an even bigger star (e.g., Anthony Davis), which never happened. Instead, Boston used many of their picks, so they now have 10 players who are age-24 or younger. That young core is led by two All-Stars: the 23-year-old Tatum and 24-year-old Jaylen Brown.
To be fair, the Ainge-led Celtics were one game away from the 2018 NBA Finals and an Irving injury upset their chances at any meaningful success the following season. But Irving and Gordon Hayward both signed elsewhere as free agents in the seasons since, and Ainge left the organization this offseason.
The Thunder, Pelicans, and Rockets should review both of the aforementioned attempts at winning via draft-pick hoarding. If they pay close attention, there are lessons to be learned.
First, a lesson from the city of brotherly love: work smarter, not harder. The 76ers&rsquo; biggest misstep was giving away too much in exchange for the first-overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. They gave up Sacramento&rsquo;s unprotected 2019 first-rounder (which became the No. 14 pick), but the pick swaps were what caused the most damage.
In hindsight, wouldn&rsquo;t Tatum have the best available addition out of everyone in the entire draft class to place alongside Embiid and Simmons? Instead 76ers executive Bryan Colangelo overthought a situation, giving up extra draft capital to pick point guard Markelle Fultz (who still hasn&rsquo;t reached his full potential), when there was already an All-Star-caliber point guard on the roster (Simmons).
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The other key takeaway comes from Beantown, and it&rsquo;s even more important than the first one: when a superstar in the prime of his career is available and you can land him, you go get him. According to <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2019/06/08/kawhi-leonard-trade-rumor-raptors-celtics-jaylen-brown-danny-ainge">Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated</a>, Boston had the best offer for Leonard and regretted not pulling the trigger. The same is probably true of their inaction regarding Butler and George, any of whom would have made an already uber-talented lineup all-the-more dangerous.
Ultimately, the situations in Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Houston will play out differently than those in Philadelphia and Boston, but different doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean better. It goes without saying that NBA front offices are smarter than ever and constantly adapting, but miscalculations (like chasing Fultz over Tatum) are inevitable.
The major benefit of stockpiling so many picks is that you have flexibility and you can weather one or more mistakes. Ideally, the sheer number of picks owned by Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Houston will outweigh any errors in judgement. Otherwise, one those teams may be rebuilding for even longer than expected.

The Thunder could have as many as 39 picks over the next seven drafts. How has stockpiling draft picks worked for teams in the past?

Nolan