Statues of Dirk and Mike properly stand tall for all to see

DFW enjoyed two extraordinary legends who now properly reside next to each other.

We love our sports arguments, don’t we?

Does this guy deserve the MVP? Why?

So-and-so absolutely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame! How do you not retire this man’s jersey?

The arguments are endless.

Has our hero been given the status he so rightfully earned? If not, you better give it to him if you want me to quiet down about it.

But, as Mike Modano was honored Saturday by the Dallas Stars with a brilliant statue on Victory Plaza, it occurred to me that I had never really heard an argument for such a thing. Nor had I recalled one for his equal across the way, Dirk Nowitzki, when his statue was unveiled a few years back.

The reason why, I hope, is obvious. If you have to argue about whether a local sports legend is deserving of a statue, then he is probably not worthy of a statue.

This is not a popular election and certainly not something that is bestowed upon just anyone because of accrued time or a certain milestone.

A statue, in my mind, is the highest honor that can be paid a local sporting legend and should be extremely rare. It has to be. Obviously, I don’t get to make the rules of the sports world - I would love to be considered for that job. But, if I did, we would create statues for only the very best of the very best. In fact, they would be so rare that you would understand the gravity of the honor simply by it happening in your lifetime.

It is not for setting an unthinkable record or milestone. It is not for being popular at a given time or mattering over decades. It is an almost unachievable level of sporting heroism that to strive for would be missing the point. It cannot be something that you climb for, but rather something that is self-evident because you climbed so hard for a franchise at such a level of unquestioned excellence.

I stood on that plaza Saturday after the game waxing nostalgic about the last three decades or so that I have here. These two men encompass that era almost perfectly, including Dirk being drafted by the Mavericks about a month before I was hired here and Mike raising the Stanley Cup less than a year later.

I looked at Mike Modano and Dirk Nowitzki posed next to each other and forever frozen in motion in bronze and granite. It occurred to me that I was looking at what sports is all about and what it means to be at the top of our local sporting pyramid.

These two men capture the very pinnacle of dream-making for an entire generation of fans in this great city and region. Neither are from here, but both were here for long enough to become our guys and be the inspiration for young athletes.

What they did mattered to us at such a level that to see them on that plaza for the rest of our lives will never feel overdone. Instead, I cannot imagine a time when I won’t gaze in that direction as part of walking into my radio studio. Also every tour through this city for a visiting guest or family member will include these monuments.