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Dirk shares fond memories of Oracle, calling it a 'fun building'

David Dow / National Basketball Association / Getty

While Dirk Nowitzki remains undecided about retirement, Saturday's meeting against the Golden State Warriors was his final visit to Oracle Arena.

The Warriors are moving across the Bay Bridge to the Chase Center in San Francisco after 47 seasons. But Golden State's longtime home holds a special place in Nowitzki's heart.

"This has always been a fun building," Nowitzki said, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon. "If their team is good or not, their support here has always been phenomenal and a fun atmosphere here to play. I'll always remember this building unfortunately with my MVP season (in 2006-07), but also a lot of great memories. My first basket was in this building, so I'm going to for sure miss it."

The Dallas Mavericks' legend created a hole in the wall outside the visitors' locker room after reportedly throwing a trash can following the team's season-ending Game 6 loss to the eighth-seeded Warriors during the 2007 NBA Playoffs. Dallas won 67 games during the regular season before becoming the first No. 1 seed eliminated in the opening round in a best-of-seven series.

Nowitzki signed the now plexiglass-covered hole.

"It's bittersweet," said Nowitzki. "It's a great thing to have something in an opposing arena, but also a great memory for them and not so much for me. But there's nothing I can do about it now but embrace it.

"It was part of my career, part of my history. I always say without these (playoff) losses in '06 and '07 back to back, I wouldn't have been the player I was in '11 to close the whole deal. This is part of my journey. It was brutal and tough to go through, but I grew from it a lot."

Nowitzki scored a season-high 21 points during the Mavs' 126-91 blowout win over the Warriors. The veteran forward recently passed Wilt Chamberlain for sixth on the NBA's all-time scoring list.

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