When the end came -- and there were absolutely no assurances early Tuesday night that this was, in fact, the last home game of Dirk Nowitzki's NBA odyssey -- Donnie Nelson sounded like your typical weeping parent.
"I don't know if I'm going to cry tonight or what,'' he said before the Mavericks took on Phoenix. "Mom and Dad were right. If this is it, and it feels like this is it, the 21 years went fast.''
The Mavericks president also remarked on the irony that Nowitzki, who made his name in San Antonio at the Hoops Summit in 1998, could finish his career in the Alamo City Wednesday.