One of the most dominant low-post interior lines in NBA history was forced to make a heart-wrenching decision on Thursday, and after 15 seasons of playing, he finally opted to retire due to heart problems.
Just a few weeks ago, when Aldridge decided to sign the Brooklyn Nets on a base salary as the fifth-largest in the rotation of the team, it reminded me of the past, which was a prelude to a storm in the trading market. No, the addition of Aldridge, 35, doesn't make Brooklyn a super team — the Spurs gave up on him because he couldn't play well enough. Also, can you blame him for wanting to be part of the championship team?
The team Aldridge played for never made his dream come true. The once-red-haired 50-win Blazers never broke through the first round of the playoffs, and Brandon Roy and Greg Oden's knees fell together. Five years later, from that broken team, Portland built a team centered on Aldridge and rising star Damian Lillard, who won 54 games and made it to the second round of the playoffs in 2014 and are expected to achieve more in the following year, until Wesley Matthews strained his Achilles tendon six weeks before the start of the playoffs. The incredible 60-win Spurs' record in the mid-to-late 2010s wasn't ideal either, starting with the young and energetic Thunder's height and athleticism overwhelming the San Antonio Spurs veteran, and then Zaza Pachulia sticking his foot out to The Cowy Leonard's feet.
So, of course: what if there was an opportunity to join Kevin Durant — with james Harden and Kyrie Irving alongside — to play a half-time game in the Finals as an official Finals contender? From all sides, I think this is very reasonable; If you can make such a decision later in the season and later in your career, you'd better choose it wisely.
After just five games in his career in Brooklyn, Aldridge once again made another wise choice. But, man, he must have been sad this time.
"It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter today," he began in a retirement statement announcing the end of a 15-season campaign. "My last game was played with an irregular heart rhythm. Later that night, my heartbeat got worse, which worried me even more. ”
This isn't the first time Aldridge has suffered from a heart rhythm problem; he has had several heart attacks during his career, most recently a "mild arrhythmia", which led to his absence due to injury at the end of the 2016-17 season. He informed the Nets after the game and went for a physical exam, and thankfully, the results were no problem. However, it also made him start to think.
Aldridge wrote on Thursday: "The heart beat problem that night was still one of the scariest things I've ever experienced." So I made a tough decision: to retire from the NBA. I've been putting basketball first for 15 years, and now, it's time to put my health and family first. ”
It must have been a heavy blow to Aldridge — one of the best players of his generation and a quiet and humble star, but his talent and dedication never paid off as he deserved — having to leave the game when Brooklyn was likely to make the playoffs. Still, that's certainly much better than the worst-case scenario that could occur if you continue to press your heart.
Basketball isn't all there is to life; life is life. And at 35, Aldridge still has a lot to do.
Nets general manager Sean Max said in a team statement: "The Nets fully support LaMarcus's decision, and while we value the impact he has had on the team during his short stay in Brooklyn, his health and well-being is far more important than the basketball game." "We knew that this decision was not easy for him, but after careful consideration and consulting with many medical experts, he made the best decision for himself, for his family, and for his life after retirement.
In the eyes of some, his basketball career is likely to be incomplete, which is why for decades some people have tended to evaluate a player's career simply by counting the championship rings on their fingers. But with or without a ring, Aldridge — the one who was selected by the Bulls with the second pick in the first round of the 2006 NBA Draft and then moved to Portland on draft night in exchange for Tyrus Thomas and Victor Kayapá (a good deal Kevin Pu Richard) — remains one of the league's strongest players in more than a decade.
As the NBA's scoring focus shifts from low and mid-range to beyond the three-point line, Aldridge's approach to play is considered somewhat outdated. But throughout his career, he remained a pivotal player — a trustworthy scoring threat, a player with extremely high value on the offensive end, and a player who was undervalued on the defensive end, until age and injuries began to affect his game. (Even then, he showed a contribution as an all-new No. 5 spot, shooting 39 percent from three points in the last two years and reaching a new level.) )
Tall at 6 feet 11 inches and weighing 250 pounds, Aldridge's size masked the ballet-like elegance he displayed on his back and on his turn, and he displayed a rare body shape, skill and scoring ability, averaging at least 17 points per game for 13 consecutive seasons. Watching his offensive performance in the paint on the left was like a master lesson on low-post footwork in the last lesson: year after year, he tortured the best interior defenders with a series of superb fake moves, back punches, layups and backsliding. Once he's created the offensive space, he'll jump high and jump straight-arm jumpers in that iconic way, and his 7'5" arm span gives him an incredibly high shot point — and when he's hot in the hand, even the best players can't interfere with that skyscraper-like height.
For the Blazers' first-round series against the Rockets in 2014, what impressed most was how Lillard ended the game — and for good reason. Still, it's worth taking a moment to think back to how, in the first and second games of the series, Aldridge blew up Dwight Howard, who scored 89 points on 35-of-59 shooting, making one of the greatest defenders in NBA history look helpless:
Two years later, after Aldridge left Portland to join the San Antonio Spurs — a free agent designed to extend the window between Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili for the title — Aldridge treated Sergei Ibaka, Steven Adams and the other young interior players of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the same way, scoring a total of 79 points on 33-of-44 shooting in the first two games of the second round of the 2016 playoffs.
He spent a lot of time perfecting his shooting posture and shooting points — most of it from his freshman at the University of Texas sitting on the bench recovering from a hip injury — and practicing again and again paid off, and even if he didn't win the championship, he deserved to be considered inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Aldridge played 1,029 regular-season games in his career to score 19,951 points, 8,478 rebounds, 2,034 assists and 1,140 blocks. In NBA history, only 12 other players have achieved such an achievement; They will either already be inducted into the Hall of Fame or will undoubtedly be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was twice named to the NBA All-NBA Second Team and three times to the Third Team; only 49 other players have surpassed his record of five NBA All-Team selections, and all of them are either already remembered in the Hall of Fame or will soon be remembered.
He is one of 78 players who have been named to the All-Star at least seven times since the introduction of 24 seconds of offensive time. Of those, 66 are no longer active in the NBA, and 60 of them have entered the Hall of Fame. Three of the six who haven't yet done so — Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce and Dwyane Wade — are clear that they will eventually enter the Hall of Fame. In addition, Chris Bosh – another talented fourth-in-command from Texas who played Aldridge in high school, like Aldridge, whose career ended prematurely due to health problems – but there is no doubt that he will eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame because he won aldridge's missing championship ring and Olympic gold medal. If Carter retires in his 15th season, it may seem uncertain whether he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame; but after 22 years in the league, he may well have locked up a seat in the Hall of Fame.
The last of the six is Joe Johnson; according to the Ticketball-Reference website's Hall of Fame probability model estimates, both Aldridge and Johnson are slightly more than 50% more likely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. This pair is so perfect. In their heyday, they were among the best players in the league, though never the strongest one. They are both reliable low-turnover, high-output, reasonably efficient offensive hubs, and have been a headache for other playoff teams for years.
Despite the fact that they both signed large contracts and had awesome careers, both of their economic companies operated anonymously. Michael Pina has written an excellent article for VICE Sports. In the article, aldridge, who claims to be introverted, is praised for his virtues of keeping a low profile, acting in a "very self-protective way" while maintaining close contact with only a small group of people he trusts.
"I love my own little world," Aldridge told Pina.
However, wrapping up in a hard shell always comes at a cost.
"I don't want people to think I'm complaining, but if someone does something I've done, it's going to be talked about more," he said.
But, for a variety of reasons, he never did: He often lacked passion in fluid and flashy games; lacked in-depth playoffs and real championship battles; combined with the stylistic and tactical shifts that prevailed in the league, many thought he was nothing more than a relic of a bygone era; and his low-key behavior made it generally difficult for him to attract attention. So if there's a good thing in Thursday's unexpected retirement announcement, then perhaps, it's that LaMarcus Aldridge, who is forever overlooked and underestimated, will finally get his flowers. And thanks to the fact that he had made such a difficult and wise decision, he could smell the fragrance of the flowers that belonged to him unharmed.