Shaq, Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, Dikembe Mutombo, Jalen Rose, Chris Webber Need...

[isiahthomas]

to retire. Juwan Howard and Grant Hill need to retire too. I hate it when old NBA players continue to play and they act like they're scared of retirement. All of these players i named are washed up and it's time to call it quits. They've all had good careers when they were younger but now it's time for some younger guys to take their places. Jalen is with Phoenix right now and he never plays unless the game is a blowout and even when it's a blowout, he still doesn't play that much hahahahahahahahahahaha. Phoenix is so loaded with good players, i don't know why he signed with them. He should've signed with a team that was gonna play him a lot. It's really a shame to see what has happened to Shaq. He should easily be averaging 25-30 points a game. There's no way he shouldn't be averaging less than that as big as he is because nobody can guard him. He should be averaging at least 4-5 blocks a game also but he's lazy on defense. Plus his injuries the last few years has limited his game. I don't think he's averaging that many rebounds either.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

... Jalen is with Phoenix right now and he never plays unless the game is a blowout and even when it's a blowout, he still doesn't play that much hahahahahahahahahahaha. Phoenix is so loaded with good players, i don't know why he signed with them. He should've signed with a team that was gonna play him a lot....

He probably wanted to go to a team that has a chance to win a title. Besides, he probably felt that he wants to be on a team that doesn't have to play him a whole lot of minutes. Maybe he feels he can't go 20 or 30 minutes a game anymore.

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

...I hate it when old NBA players continue to play and they act like they're scared of retirement. All of these players i named are washed up and it's time to call it quits. They've all had good careers when they were younger but now it's time for some younger guys to take their places. ...

If the younger guys want to take the place of these (formerly) great players, they have to go out and earn the spot on the team. No one's going to give it to them.

btw, it's not just the old guys you named who should retire... Kwame Brown is 24 (will be 25 in March), and absolutely SUCKS! He never should have even been PLAYING in the NBA... the league would not miss his presence one bit if he left the game. Kwame, if you're reading this, RETIRE ALREADY!!

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

...I hate it when old NBA players continue to play and they act like they're scared of retirement. All of these players i named are washed up and it's time to call it quits. They've all had good careers when they were younger but now it's time for some younger guys to take their places...

In most cases, these decisions are made by a combination of the player and the team. The reality is, once a professional team can replace you with someone who's better than you, they replace you. Until then, you've got yourself a job.



Your opinion is not a new phenomenon... sportwriters and fans have ALWAYS complained about players who 'hang on too long'... but of course, with guys like Barry Sanders, they complain that he quit too soon!

The lesson here is that we don't own anyone's talents except our own. If a Barry Sanders, or a Jim Brown, or a Wilt Chamberlain (all of whom were still stars in their leagues at the time of their retirement) want to walk away and do something else, who are we to tell them they can't do it?

At the same time, a player doesn't "owe" it to some young kid who wants his job to simply walk away, for the purpose of providing a job to the younger kid. If the young kid wants their job, he's going to have to TAKE it from them. Also, as far as a player's "reputation" goes, hey, it's HIS life...it's HIS reputation...it's none of our business what he does with it. If he ends up "embarrassing" himself on the court, or on the field, so what? Doesn't cost US anything...

If you had a job that pays as much as the NBA does to its players (even to those who don't play very much), you'd probably find it difficult to walk away from it as well.

Bottom line, if some kid is TRULY better than the veteran players you're talking about, and if the team thought the young kid could HELP THE TEAM more than having said veterans around, then these veterans would be gone... fact is, the teams they're on feel they're better off with them than without them.

Once you understand this, you won't have to agonize over it any more.

[isiahthomas]

LOL@what you said about Kwame Brown hahahahahahahahahaha. I don't like him either. His ignorant ass recently threw a birthday cake at some guy on the street that he didn't know.

[GARFIELDKOOL]

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

to retire. Juwan Howard and Grant Hill need to retire too. I hate it when old NBA players continue to play and they act like they're scared of retirement. All of these players i named are washed up and it's time to call it quits. They've all had good careers when they were younger but now it's time for some younger guys to take their places. Jalen is with Phoenix right now and he never plays unless the game is a blowout and even when it's a blowout, he still doesn't play that much hahahahahahahahahahaha. Phoenix is so loaded with good players, i don't know why he signed with them. He should've signed with a team that was gonna play him a lot. It's really a shame to see what has happened to Shaq. He should easily be averaging 25-30 points a game. There's no way he shouldn't be averaging less than that as big as he is because nobody can guard him. He should be averaging at least 4-5 blocks a game also but he's lazy on defense. Plus his injuries the last few years has limited his game. I don't think he's averaging that many rebounds either.

I agree with you. Nobody is scared of Shaq anymore. Like Charles Barkley once said, Shaq needs to stop eating. LOL He can't even get up and down the court anymore. I got no comment about Grant Hill. Everytime I think of him, I think of injuries. That's the first thing that comes to mind. He could have been the greatest small forward to play the game, but he is too injury prone. Speaking of injuries, C-Webb should have called it quits, when the Lakers eliminated the Kings in the western conference finals in 2002. I was pulling for the Kings so bad to beat the Lakers. The Kings and Webber haven't been the same ever since. I fault Chris on that one, because during crunch time, he was afraid to shoot, in other words, he didn't have any killer instinct when they needed him to have it.

The rest of them you mentioned are just collecting a paycheck.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by GARFIELDKOOL

...The rest of them you mentioned are just collecting a paycheck.

True...but WHAT a paycheck!

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

LOL@what you said about Kwame Brown hahahahahahahahahaha. I don't like him either. His ignorant ass recently threw a birthday cake at some guy on the street that he didn't know.

LOL, I hadn't heard about the birthday cake incident! That's too funny... what a moron!

[isiahthomas]

Charles Barkley got some nerve saying Shaq needs to stop eating because Barkley eats a lot too. Look at how big Barkley is LOL. Shaq is still good when he's healthy and i feel that Dwayne Wade needs to stop ballhogging and Shaq's teammates need to give him the ball more because nobody can guard him. He should easily average 27-30 points a game. He would average more if he wasn't a terrible free throw shooter. I think Shaq is lazy on defense now though since he's gotten older. He doesn't block a lot of shots like he used to when he was younger. I was watching old footage today of Shaq on this dvd called NBA Superstars 3. Shaq was the man when he played for Orlando. I saw him dunk on Robert Parish twice and he dunked on Manute Bol twice LOL. Manute Bol has been dunked on by everybody hahahahahahahahahaha. I also saw Shaq dunk on Alonzo Mourning. Remember when Shaq broke two backboards back in the day? When i saw him play for LSU in college, he was a monster then. I knew he was gonna be a star when he got drafted in the NBA.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by isiahthomas

Charles Barkley got some nerve saying Shaq needs to stop eating because Barkley eats a lot too. Look at how big Barkley is LOL. Shaq is still good when he's healthy and i feel that Dwayne Wade needs to stop ballhogging and Shaq's teammates need to give him the ball more because nobody can guard him. He should easily average 27-30 points a game. He would average more if he wasn't a terrible free throw shooter. I think Shaq is lazy on defense now though since he's gotten older. He doesn't block a lot of shots like he used to when he was younger. I was watching old footage today of Shaq on this dvd called NBA Superstars 3. Shaq was the man when he played for Orlando. I saw him dunk on Robert Parish twice and he dunked on Manute Bol twice LOL. Manute Bol has been dunked on by everybody hahahahahahahahahaha. I also saw Shaq dunk on Alonzo Mourning. Remember when Shaq broke two backboards back in the day? When i saw him play for LSU in college, he was a monster then. I knew he was gonna be a star when he got drafted in the NBA.

I love Charles, but he's a fine one to talk about weight LOL...


I know exactly the dunks you're talking about... I remember seeing the ones over Parrish, one hand tomahawks... and I remember the one on Alonzo Mourning, Shaq came flying in from the left side of the key, went high in the air and threw it down with one hand... I think even Shaq was a little shocked that he actually made that shot... I think he was expecting to be fouled hard...

Shaq has really been incredible during his career... once Olajuwon passed his prime, Shaq has had no one close to him at the center position in the NBA... He caught Ewing, Robinson and Olajuwon in the 2nd half of each of their careers, and those were some fun matchups for a while... in the 95 finals, Olajuwon vs. Shaq was great to watch (Olajuwon had outplayed and was clearly superior to Ewing in the 94 Finals)... in those two seasons, Akeem was as dominant as any center since Jabbar and Moses Malone...

[Stormtracker TF]

Shaq > 75% of the players in the league even when he's crippled. That's why he annoys me so much.