duncan228
11-21-2009, 11:22 PM
The NBA's saddest goodbyes (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/The_NBAs_saddest_goodbyes.html)
Few great players have enjoyed their final acts as thoroughly as Spurs Hall of Famer David Robinson. The Admiral saved the best game of his final season for last, scoring 13 points and grabbing 17 rebounds in Game 6 of the 2003 NBA Finals, when the Spurs won their second championship.
Compare that with what may turn out to be the final game of Allen Iverson’s career: Eight points in 21 minutes and 20 seconds of a Memphis Grizzlies loss to the Lakers.
With the Knicks dropping out of the non-bidding for now-free agent Iverson this week, the career of one of the game’s most exciting players may be coming to an inglorious end. No amount of lobbying by Larry Brown, his coach in Philadelphia when he won the 2000-01 MVP Award and went to the NBA Finals, has been enough to convince any team to give him a roster spot, at least for the moment.
Unless Iverson eventually signs with another team, the ledger for his final season will show just 37 total points in three games for the woeful Grizzlies. If so, it will be a sad farewell for a player with a career scoring average of 27.1 points per game. Iverson is in danger of joining a list of once-great players whose careers ended ignominiously.
Here is a look at some other great players whose final seasons were sad reminders that choosing when to stop playing is often the hardest choice for the most talented:
Hakeem Olajuwon
Before The Dream, then 38, decided to continue his Hall of Fame career in Toronto after 15 great seasons with the Rockets, close friends tried to talk him into retiring. He wouldn’t listen. After averaging just 7.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in his first season with the Raptors, he spent his entire final season on the injured list.
Walt Frazier
The author of one of the greatest Game 7s in NBA Finals history — 36 points, 19 assists and seven rebounds in a 1970 title-clincher for the Knicks — was stunned when the Knicks traded him to the Cavaliers before the 1977-78 season. After two relatively productive seasons in Cleveland, the Cavs waived him just three games into the 1979-80 season.
Patrick Ewing
For 14 years, Ewing was the heart and soul of some very good Knicks teams, including two that went to the NBA Finals, but he was traded to the SuperSonics before the 2000-01 season. After one relatively disappointing season in Seattle, he signed a free-agent contract with the Magic, but in 65 games in 2001-02, he averaged just 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds.
Bob Cousy
The great playmaker of the Celtics dynasty of the 1950s and ’60s had been retired for five seasons when he was hired to coach the Cincinnati Royals. Before the season began, he decided to come out of retirement as a player. It was a terrible decision. In seven games, he scored only five points and had 10 assists.
Few great players have enjoyed their final acts as thoroughly as Spurs Hall of Famer David Robinson. The Admiral saved the best game of his final season for last, scoring 13 points and grabbing 17 rebounds in Game 6 of the 2003 NBA Finals, when the Spurs won their second championship.
Compare that with what may turn out to be the final game of Allen Iverson’s career: Eight points in 21 minutes and 20 seconds of a Memphis Grizzlies loss to the Lakers.
With the Knicks dropping out of the non-bidding for now-free agent Iverson this week, the career of one of the game’s most exciting players may be coming to an inglorious end. No amount of lobbying by Larry Brown, his coach in Philadelphia when he won the 2000-01 MVP Award and went to the NBA Finals, has been enough to convince any team to give him a roster spot, at least for the moment.
Unless Iverson eventually signs with another team, the ledger for his final season will show just 37 total points in three games for the woeful Grizzlies. If so, it will be a sad farewell for a player with a career scoring average of 27.1 points per game. Iverson is in danger of joining a list of once-great players whose careers ended ignominiously.
Here is a look at some other great players whose final seasons were sad reminders that choosing when to stop playing is often the hardest choice for the most talented:
Hakeem Olajuwon
Before The Dream, then 38, decided to continue his Hall of Fame career in Toronto after 15 great seasons with the Rockets, close friends tried to talk him into retiring. He wouldn’t listen. After averaging just 7.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in his first season with the Raptors, he spent his entire final season on the injured list.
Walt Frazier
The author of one of the greatest Game 7s in NBA Finals history — 36 points, 19 assists and seven rebounds in a 1970 title-clincher for the Knicks — was stunned when the Knicks traded him to the Cavaliers before the 1977-78 season. After two relatively productive seasons in Cleveland, the Cavs waived him just three games into the 1979-80 season.
Patrick Ewing
For 14 years, Ewing was the heart and soul of some very good Knicks teams, including two that went to the NBA Finals, but he was traded to the SuperSonics before the 2000-01 season. After one relatively disappointing season in Seattle, he signed a free-agent contract with the Magic, but in 65 games in 2001-02, he averaged just 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds.
Bob Cousy
The great playmaker of the Celtics dynasty of the 1950s and ’60s had been retired for five seasons when he was hired to coach the Cincinnati Royals. Before the season began, he decided to come out of retirement as a player. It was a terrible decision. In seven games, he scored only five points and had 10 assists.