Dirk Nowitzki, GOAT, 2011:
Shawn Berry
“That shot, a fadeaway jump shot on one foot, often on the wrong foot, sometimes while turning around, sometimes from an angle that could have ended a friendly horse match with a fistfight, probably ruined youth basketball for the next decade. Kids all over North Texas and beyond are literally desperately trying to imitate Nowitzki. The move remains strangely fundamentally sound and yet so unconventional, like a thief keeping regular working hours.”
Jack Matthews, property developer, 2008:
Natalie Gough
“He dresses like a Best Buy manager. He wears a suit for groundbreakings and the occasional meeting, but mostly he keeps it in the closet, wearing khakis and dress shirts. He has thinning, gray hair. He’s got a stocky build. And he looks, yes, soft like a card-game idiot. That’s just how it is. A bait-like shark that no one could see coming.”
Elizabeth Lavin
“Watkins is 6-foot-5, a massive, stocky man, and he doesn’t waste an inch or a pound. He walks into the office, sits down in a leather chair beside the table, and sinks back into it like a bored king, propping up his chin on his enormous paws and propping up his feet like flying buttresses.”
Bill Weisner, record store owner, 2009:
Allison V. Smith
“Carrier Shells are a type of sea snail that essentially build their homes from bits and pieces of the world around them. Flotsam of fellow sea creatures are transformed into the mollusc’s elaborate shells. Layers built from fragments of living coral, sponges and other shells are cemented together with rocks, sand and a variety of other things. It’s random, but intricate. From afar it’s a chaotic accumulation, but up close it’s an elaborate work of art. Carrier Shells are collectors surrounded by collections. This was Bill Weisner.”
Elizabeth Lavin
“He laughs staccato, huff-puff, like a lawnmower engine about to start.”
Elizabeth Lavin
“His outfit is accented with black diamond earrings the size of wasabi peas and thin, almost fanciful, gold chains: expensive yet understated, well-off rather than rich, a Mercedes rather than a Ferrari.”
Survive, rock band, 2016:
“You could say Survive make mood music, but only for one mood: anxiety. The band’s songs, written 30 years ago and extrapolating what the future might sound like 50 years from now, are often cold and impassive, yet at the same time full of unsettling menace. It stems primarily from a pulsating bass that thunders relentlessly beneath every song, depicting Jason Voorhees in every succession of notes. To put it another way, it would have been heavy metal if the guitar had never been invented.”
Erykah Badu, recording artist, 2017:
Elizabeth Lavin
“Erika has been living with us in Dallas long after most of us have left. It’s not like the telephoto lens of Us Weekly, ‘celebs are just like us!’ She’s working out at your gym in pink Nikes and a hat, like she’s about to deliver the Gettysburg Address. She’s at Walmart at 4 a.m. on a weekday with one of her daughters. Why is she there? Why are you there?”
Elizabeth Lavin
“His tone was urgent but not angry. His voice grew stronger with use, like a river filled with rainwater.”
Owen Jones
“His hair, once storm clouds hovering overhead, has receded to the horizon, closer to his ears….”
Mark Cuban, Mavericks owner, 2020:
Photo by Danny Bollinger
“We saw the Mark Cuban we’d known for 20 years, in relaxed jeans, a kabuki actor who barely spoke but was audible, full of exaggerated gestures and over-the-top facial expressions.”
Courtesy of the Dallas Mavericks
“His head is enormous, like a carnival caricature brought to life by a boy’s magic wish. His hands are so oversized they border on fantasy, like Dave Grohl’s at the end of the Foo Fighters’ “Everlong” video. His arms are longer than a CVS receipt.”
Tim Corsey, artist and writer, 2021:
Elizabeth Lavin
“Now in his 80s, he seems to have evolved to blend in unnoticed. He’s lean, muscular and curly, with a lock of silvery hair that has grown unruly into the shape of a question mark.”
Kevin Jairaj – USA TODAY Sports
“Hardaway isn’t the kind of gunner who can dodge complicated screens to take curveballs or stand on the weak side waiting for a skip pass. He doesn’t have to search the defense to find his chance. He can take a jump shot in a packed Kia Sorento. All he needs is the ball.”
courtesy
“This country-leaning singer-songwriter is 21 years old, but looks about 15 and sounds like a 42-year-old in the midst of his second divorce.”
Elizabeth Lavin
“His voice is like finding a key in your pocket that fits perfectly to a door you didn’t realize was locked, filling a need you never knew you had until it was fulfilled.”
This story originally appeared in the September issue of D Magazine under the headline “A Man’s Reflections.” Contact him at holland@dmagazine.com.
