Two things happened in favor of the Dallas Mavericks tonight. One, they beat the Los Angeles Lakers 124-115. And two, they unveiled a statue of one of their best-ever players outside the same court, the American Airlines Center. Lebron James commented on the new statue that was erected outside the court. His comments on the All-Star’s legacy have seemingly divided the NBA world online.

Dirk Nowitzki’s statue was the talk of the town on Christmas day. LeBron James said that he was a legend and an icon. “That boy was cold“, added LeBron. However, fans did not seem to take James’ words kindly.

Why are fans questioning LeBron James?

LeBron James praised Nowitzki after the game, and called him the “greatest international player ever”. His commentary, however, has had polarizing reactions on social media. While some agreed with the statement, many others thought that it was contradictory to his earlier behavior towards Dirk Nowitzki.

Here are some of the reactions from NBA Twitter:

https://twitter.com/theestatsheet/status/1607186219741454338?s=20&t=EHc_EZH600WW8fp4RarN7w

They brought attention to the 2011 NBA Finals where even Nowitzki eventually voiced out LeBron’s behavior.

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During Game 4 while playing against the Miami Heat and LeBron James, Nowitzki was dealing with an illness. Before Game 5, it was reported that both James and Dwyane Wade were “mocking him by fake coughing”. Nowitzki later said, “Honestly, I just felt like it was a little disrespectful”.

The Mavericks’ legend gets immortalized

Dirk Nowitzki was immortalized for posterity by his franchise. Owner Mark Cuban proclaimed that it was going to be “the biggest, most badass statue ever” that would take the stage in the American Airlines Center. On Christmas day, Nowitzki’s 24-foot-high statue was unveiled on the same street that was called the Nowitzki Way.

The statue is an ode to his iconic fadeaway jumper, a.k.a. ‘The Dirk’. James also spoke that he had an intuition that it was going to be the fadeaway before the big reveal.

Cuban said, “It’s a promise that gives me the joy to deliver on because you earned it“.

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The statue also featured significant details including his shoes and uniform from the 2010-11 NBA season, notably,?the franchise’s lone title. It also tips its hat to the 21 years that Nowitzki spent with one franchise. In fact, Nowitzki is the only NBA player to spend 21 seasons with one franchise.