I’m going to start with the premise that Dirk Nowitzki is the face of the Dallas Mavericks.
I will take it a step further and lob an arguable point- Dirk Nowitzki is more essential to the the Dallas Mavericks than Michael Jordan is to the Chicago Bulls.
Two reasons for this line of thinking I will share which are bound to be chewed up- Michael Jordan would have been the biggest star in the NBA for any team. While Dirk would have been a great player no matter where he landed, I would argue his fit in Dallas was part of his greatness.