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Deke and Zo.
The NBA's saddest goodbyes
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 le-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.
Deke and Zo.
The Rockets trading Hakeem to Toronto was such a piece of move by that franchise...
Word. They should have sucked it up and took a ty season for everything the Dream did for them.
I agree with ya guys. Its not like we were going anywhere with the Steve Francis era anyways.
What'd we get in return in that trade anyways?
Quote from wikipedia:
Houston began to rebuild, bringing in young guards Cuttino Mobley and 2000 NBA co–Rookie of the Year Steve Francis. On August 2, 2001,[29] Olajuwon was traded to the Toronto Raptors for draft picks (the highest of which was used by Houston to draft Bostjan Nachbar at #15 in the 2002 NBA Draft), where he played his final NBA season, averaging career lows of 7.1 points and 6.0 rebounds per game,[29] before retiring. Olajuwon retired as the all–time league leader in total blocked shots with 3,830, although shot blocking did not become an official statistic until the 1973-74 NBA season. Shortly after his retirement, his #34 jersey was retired by the Rockets.
Trading 15 years of HoF service for Bostjan Nachbar...
At least winning is important to Houston.
That's horrible.
If I was in Les's shoes, I'd slap myself for thinking of trading someone who gave up a lot of their time for a franchise that was once nothing turned into something.
I mean seriously, that's like trading Duncan away.
What's not mentioned is that he played in game five against the Pistons in the 2001-02 season. His last minutes on an NBA floor came at the Palace (a game I was at in-person) as the Pistons won their first playoff series in 11 years.
I wouldn't blame Hakeem if he hates Houston because of it.
He wanted to leave. He wanted a chance to win a Championship. Vince Carter was the hottest thing in the NBA and came a jumpshot from going to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001. With Alvin Williams coming off a career year (after almost being traded to the Boston Celtics for Kenny Anderson before the 2000-01 training camp), All-Rookie 1st teamer Morris Peterson, and All-Star Antonio Davis back in the fold, the Raptors looked in prime position to ascend to the top of the Conference. The Raptors had done all that winning while the team was in-flux. Free-agent acquisition Mark Jackson was sent back to the Knicks, where he started his career, for Chris Childs. Corliss Williamson, who had been sent to the Raptors in 2000 for Doug Christie, was sent packing to the Detroit Pistons for Jerome Williams and Eric Montross. And the biggest acquisition was Keon Clark for Kevin Willis.
The Raptors had two-man scoring punch (Peterson and Carter), Rebounding and defense (J. Williams, Clark, and Davis), and shooters (Childs, Dell Curry). They lost the veteran leadership that Charles Oakley provided and replaced him with Olajuwon.
What happened? Olajuwon and Carter couldn't stay healthy. Carter started taking jumpers because he was trying to grow his game, but too often the clanged off the rim. Alvin Williams regressed back to his shoot-first mentality, and the toughness Oakley provided was never replaced. With Carter lost for the season in Mid-March, including the playoffs, the Raptors ran off 12 of 14 victories to get above .500 and make the postseason. They would fall into a 2-0 hole behind some very poor shooting from Morris Peterson, their main scorer, and although they would rally in Toronto behind some All-NBA-type perfromances from Antonio Davis, the Pistons closed out the series in 5.
Moses Malone comes to mind
Jordan was mighty sad those last two seasons in Washington. He brokered an entire legacy for a chance to GM, and all he ended up with was a ravaged ass, and the specter of The Kwame.
scottie pippen.
seeing him in portland i didn't believe it was the same player
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