NBA: Dirk Nowitzki re-signs with Dallas Mavericks for 21st season

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New York, July 24: Dallas Mavericks icon and record-breaking NBA veteran Dirk Nowitzki has signed a new contract.

Nowitzki's one year, $5million deal sets the stage for the 40-year-old to play his 21st consecutive season in Dallas and break Kobe Bryant's NBA record for most successive campaign with a single franchise.

The signing, necessitated by a salary-cap move in which the Mavs did not exercise their option on a contract he signed in 2017, was a foregone conclusion.

According to the Dallas Morning News, it is believed this will be his final NBA season, but Nowitzki "has been careful not to etch anything in stone as his career winds down".

A 13-time All-Star, Nowitzki enters the 2018-19 season sixth in the NBA's all-time scoring list and first among active players with 31,183 points, but he is only 145 points ahead of fifth-placed LeBron James.

Nowitzki averaged 12 points and 5.7 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game last season.

He has played an increasingly reduced role in recent years, in part because of his age, and likely will see time as a reserve as the Mavericks tinker with their roster.