Great points, the longevity is in Dirks favor. He can spend his last seasons as sixth man scorer, I'm assuming this wouldn't happen but I think he'd be willing to sacrifice his ego for the sake of the team; not the same type of alpha as Kobe or Iverson (AI at the end was sad, that Piston run with Micheal Curry was the casket closing early).
I wonder how much Dirk was influenced by guys like Stackhouse, Jamison, Finley, VC, even Walker; guys who were stars or big number guys who sacrificed their game to win.