Abdur-Rahim retires

[mook]

http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/1257978.html

After 12 seasons and a legacy as one of the game's most reliable frontcourt producers and foremost NBA humanitarians, Shareef Abdur-Rahim announced his retirement on Monday.
Unable to rehabilitate an arthritic right knee that had undergone two arthroscopic surgeries last year and limited him to eight games last season, the career of the 31-year-old Kings forward and one-time Olympian has ended far sooner than he'd planned.
"For me, there will always be a part that's stuck in a state of nostalgia, always hoping I could be young and playing and running up and down the court," Abdur-Rahim said by phone. "(But) it was progressively getting worse, and I couldn't do the things you have to do to play in the NBA. Mentally, I could still do it and still see myself doing it, but physically I couldn't do it anymore."

Adios, Rahim. You made a lot of money, you scored a lot of points, and you lost a lot of games.

 

[maxiep]

What's funny is that SAR's bad knee is better than Miles' good one. A nice guy who was the best player on some very bad teams. He would have been a nice third option on a good team, but could never manage to find one.

 

[Foulzilla]

I was rooting for him to do well, seemed like a good guy in a lot of bad situations. I'm glad he at least made the postseason once breaking a fairly impressive(ly bad) streak.

 

[Minstrel]

I think Abdur-Rahim was massively underrated during his prime, due to playing for a very bad team.

I always hoped Portland would get him. Unfortunately, I wanted him along with Rasheed Wallace. Dealing Wallace for a declining SAR really wasn't what I wanted.

 

[JE]

One less piece of dead weight the Kings need to get rid of.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Thought some of us might find this interesting considering the Miles situation.

From ESPN Insider

Off The Books
Geoff Petrie said the NBA granted the Kings salary cap relief for 2008-09 and 2009-10 for the contract of Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The retired forward and current Kings assistant coach still will be paid his salary ($12.8 million combined this season and next) by an insurance company because of his career-ending knee problems, but the contract was taken off the payroll for cap purposes. -- Sacramento Bee

It would be nice if more of us used the search option instead of starting so new threads about previously discussed topics.

 

[maxiep]

What's funny is that SAR's knees are in better shape than Darius'. Miles is doing long-term and irreversable damage to his knee joints by continuing to play. I can't believe it's the position of the NBA that the Blazers are the ones who are penalized for his poor decision.

 

[handiman]

Uh-oh. Clearly this means SAR's career is going full circle and he'll sign with Memphis next year for salary cap sabotaging purposes...

 

[Mediocre Man]

Maybe Memphis signs SAR away from the Kings as an assistant to complete the second stage of the trilogy?