Dirk Nowitzki will join the club tonight.
Assuming he has a routine game, or something approaching his usual high standard, he'll get the 16 points he needs against the LA Lakers to reach 20,000 for his career.
He'll become the 34th player in NBA history to reach the plateau that validates the great scorers in league history.
And, at the still-prime age of 31, the best European ever in the NBA who also is the best 7-foot shooter of all time is far from done.
"He has a lot of years left," said Jason Kidd, who is thrilled for Nowitzki, but also likes to keep him grounded. "When he gets into his high 30s he'll be a guy who stands behind the (3-point) line.
"And he'll be getting a lot of attention. He can make shots and could end up pretty high on that list."
The top 10 in all-time scoring certainly is in his reach, assuming he keeps rolling for a few more years.
"It's an unbelievable milestone," Nowitzki said. "Looking back 11 years ago, I don't think any of you guys thought I could score a thousand. But my main goal now is a championship. All the individual goals will be nice when I'm done, but as for now, it doesn't mean that much to me. I'm still chasing my dream and that's to win a championship."
Being in the 20K club is only the start for Nowitzki's personal portfolio. It almost guarantees that he will end up in another elite club: the basketball hall of fame.
Of the 33 players who have reached 20,000 points before Nowitzki, all of them that are eligible to be in the hall of fame are in it, except for Mitch Richmond and Tom Chambers, who each barely squeaked into the 20,000 club.
"We all knew it, right?" president Donnie Nelson said with a drip of sarcasm. "We felt good about the pick, but I'd be lying to you if I told you back then that Dirk would be looking at those kind of numbers. With all good players, it's a combination of what the Good Lord gave him and a ticker as big as all outdoors and good-old fashion work ethic."
As for how Nowitzki gets his 20,000th point, Kidd said he won't try to orchestrate something. "When you do that," he said, "it never works out."
What Nowitzki knows is it'll be more memorable than his first point in the NBA, which came at Seattle in the opener of the lockout-shortened season in 1999. He was playing against Detlef Schrempf, who along with Uwe Blab was the first German in the NBA who was an idol of sorts to Nowitzki growing up in Germany.
"There were Germans all over the place," Nowitzki said. "It was just a mess. The stadium was so big and I was in awe the whole time. I was 0-for-3 or 0-for-4 from the floor and made two free throws. So those were my first points. Looking back, it was one of the worst games I've ever played."
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; 38,387
2. Karl Malone; 36,928*
3. Michael Jordan; 32,292
4. Wilt Chamberlain; 31,419
5. Shaquille O'Neal; 27,969**
6. Moses Malone; 27,409
7. Elvin Hayes; 27,313
8. Hakeem Olajuwon; 26,946
9. Oscar Robertson; 26,710
10. Dominique Wilkins; 26,668
11. John Havlicek; 26,395
12. Alex English; 25,613
13. Reggie Miller; 25,279*
14. Jerry West; 25,192
15. Kobe Bryant 24,914**
16. Patrick Ewing; 24,815
17. Allen Iverson; 24,187**
18. Charles Barkley; 23,757
19. Robert Parish; 23,334
20. Adrian Dantley; 23,177
21. Elgin Baylor; 23,149
22. Clyde Drexler; 22,195
23. Gary Payton;21,813*
24. Larry Bird; 21,791
25. Kevin Garnett; 21,712**
26. Hal Greer; 21,586
27. Walt Bellamy; 20,941
28. Bob Pettit; 20,880
29. David Robinson; 20,790
30. George Gervin; 20,708
31. Mitch Richmond; 20,497*
32. Ray Allen; 20,238**
33. Tom Chambers; 20,049*
34. Dirk Nowitzki; 19,984**
35. Tim Duncan; 19,906**
36. John Stockton; 19,711
37. Bernard King; 19,655*
38. Clifford Robinson; 19,591*
39. Walter Davis; 19,521*
40. Terry Cummings; 19,460*
*Not in the basketball hall of fame; **Active players
Dirk Nowitzki needs 16 points tonight to reach 20,000 points. He will be playing his 876th NBA game.
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Others of note: Hakeem Olajuwon, 833; Moses Malone, 837; Charles Barkley, 858
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