Dirk Nowitzki, the GOAT, 2011:
“That shot—a one-legged fade-away jumper, often off the wrong foot, sometimes while turning around, occasionally from an angle that could end a friendly game of HORSE in fisticuffs—has probably ruined youth basketball for the next decade. In North Texas and beyond, kids everywhere are literally falling all over themselves, trying to emulate Nowitzki. The move is oddly fundamentally sound while remaining wildly unorthodox, like if a cat burglar kept regular office hours.”
Jack Matthews, real estate developer, 2008:
“He dresses like the manager of a Best Buy. He breaks out a suit for groundbreaking ceremonies and the occasional meeting, but it mostly stays in the closet in favor of khakis and dress shirts. His hair is wispy and gray. His physique leans toward doughy. He looks, well, he looks soft—like the sucker at a card game. And that’s just it. No one sees him coming, this shark that looks like chum.”
Craig Watkins, district attorney, 2009:
“Watkins is a big guy, 6-foot-5 and broad, and he carries himself so that not an inch or pound is unaccounted for. When he enters his office and deposits himself into one of those leather chairs next to the table, he sinks into his seat like a bored king, weighing his chin in one giant paw, his legs jutting out like flying buttresses.”
Bill Wisener, record store owner, 2009:
“A carrier shell is a species of sea snail that, essentially, builds a home from bits and pieces of the world around it. The flotsam of its fellow sea creatures is turned into elaborate shells for the mollusk—layers constructed from scraps of live coral, sponges, and other shells, cemented together with rocks and sand and whatever else. It’s random but precise: a haphazard accumulation from a distance, an intricate work of art up close. The carrier shell is a collector surrounded by its collection. That was Bill Wisener.”
Dwaine Caraway, city councilman, 2014:
“He laughs, staccato, huh huh huh, like the engine of a lawn mower trying to catch.”
Tyson Chandler, Mavericks center, 2015:
“His ensemble is accented by black diamond earrings the size of wasabi peas and a gold chain so thin it’s practically fictional. It’s an expensive yet subtle look, wealthy more than rich, a Mercedes instead of a Ferrari.”
Survive, rock band, 2016:
“You could say Survive makes mood music, but for only one mood: anxiety. The band’s songs—a guess at what the future would sound like in 50 years made 30 years ago—are often clinical and cold but also loaded with unnerving menace. It comes mostly from the throbbing bass trudging implacably beneath every song, Jason Voorhees drawn in a series of musical notes. Put another way: it’s heavy metal if no one had ever invented guitars.”
Erykah Badu, recording artist, 2017:
“For two decades, long after most would have left, Erykah has lived among us in Dallas, and not in a US Weekly, telephoto-lens, ‘Celebs Are Just Like Us!’ way. She’s there at your gym, working out in pink Nikes and a hat like she’s about to deliver the Gettysburg Address. She’s with one of her daughters at Walmart at 4 am on a random weekday. Why is she there? Why are you?”
Rev. Dr. Michael Waters, pastor, 2018:
“His tone was urgent but not angry, his voice gathering force the more he used it, a river fed by rainfall.”
Ernest McMillan, civil rights activist, 2019:
“His hair, once a storm cloud hovering above his head, has retreated to a horizon closer to his ears … .”
Mark Cuban, Mavericks owner, 2020:
“We saw the Mark Cuban we’ve known for 20 years, the Kabuki performer in relaxed-fit jeans who barely needs to speak to be heard, all exaggerated gestures and overly dramatic expressions.”
Boban Marjanović, Mavericks center, 2020:
“His head is enormous, like a carnival caricature has been granted life by a young boy’s magical wish. His hands are oversize to the point of fantasy, like Dave Grohl’s at the end of the Foo Fighters’ ‘Everlong’ video. His arms are longer than CVS receipts.”
Tim Coursey, artist and writer, 2021:
“Now in his eighth decade, it’s almost as if he has evolved to slip through the world unnoticed. He’s thin and wiry and curls into himself, a question mark ending in an unruly thatch of silvery hair.”
Tim Hardaway Jr., Mavericks forward, 2022:
“Hardaway isn’t a gunner curling off an intricate series of screens or standing on the weak side waiting for a skip pass. He doesn’t have to probe the defense to find his opening. He could get his jumper off in a fully occupied Kia Sorento. He just needs the ball.”
Parker Twomey, recording artist, 2022:
“This country-adjacent singer-songwriter is 21 years old, looks about 15, and sounds like a 42-year-old working on a second divorce.”
Abraham Alexander, recording artist, 2023:
“He has a voice that is like finding a key in your pocket that fits into a door you didn’t realize was locked, satisfying a need you weren’t aware of until it had already been met.”
This story originally appeared in the September issue of D Magazine with the headline “Reflections of a Man.” Write to holland@dmagazine.com.
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