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With Kobe Bryant recently announcing that he will retire at the end of the NBA season, the focus on his final year has shifted from tumultuous grind to celebratory conclusion.
As teams farewell the five time champion, Kobe has requested that opposing teams don’t hold pre-game ceremonies or give gifts as they will detract from the game.
Bryant’s career accolades have been well documented, from his historic 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors in 2006 to his 17 All-Star selections, trailing only legendary Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But Bryant might not be the only player to retire come season’s end, we might just be witnessing the end of a revolutionary generation.
While no one would advocate that the following players retire, it certainly wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.
No stranger to retirement rumours, Tim Duncan has been the epitome of consistency across his 18 years in the NBA. While both his minutes and points are at career lows, the Spurs sit second in the Western Conference with a 18-4 record.
The incredible depth of the Spurs bench along with the signing of LaMarcus Aldridge has meant that Duncan doesn’t need to dominate the game as he did in years past. He is still contracted to play next year and if the Spurs can challenge for the Larry O’Brien trophy yet again, there’s no telling what the 39 year old will do.
While it certainly seems like a fitting time for Duncan to “pass the torch” over to LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard, his efficiency suggests otherwise. Duncan ranks just outside the top 20 in both effective field goal percentage (eFG%) and player efficiency rating (PER), a testament to both his durability and grounded play style. The only credible reason for Duncan to retire would be his age, which surely has to catch up to him at some point.
Lost in the relatively deep Clippers bench, Paul Pierce has quietly been having a less than impressive season. Averaging 4.3 points and 1 assist per game, Pierce is a shell of his former self. There has been a significant drop off in overall production, with his career averages of 20.5 points and 3.7 assists seeming like an eternity ago. While he isn’t expected to perform the way he did back in 2008 where the Celtics won the title, it was less than a year ago that Pierce lead the Washington Wizards to their first playoff series victory since the 2004-05 campaign.
Of course, he signed with the Clippers to play a reduced role and said that he would retire if he won a championship this year. While they are certainly contenders in the Western Conference, it would be difficult to argue that the Clippers (in their current form at least) are capable of topping the Warriors or even the Spurs in a best of seven series. At 38-years-old, Pierce has logged 44,000+ minutes in the NBA, ranking him inside the top 20 of all time and fifth among current active players. He has been fortunate not to suffer any significant injuries over the past few years but it may be time for “The Truth” to hang up his boots; a Celtics legend that deserves to ride off into the sunset rather than fade into the darkness of the Clippers bench.
From one Celtics legend to another, Kevin Garnett looks likely to end his career with the same team that drafted him back in 1995, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Big Ticket spent his first eleven seasons with the T’wolves but was only able to get them as far as the Conference Finals in the 2003-04 season, where they fell to the Los Angeles Lakers. He was traded to the Celtics in 2007 where he would join forces with the aforementioned Pierce and sharpshooter Ray Allen.
KG went on to win Defensive Player of the Year as well as an NBA Championship in 2008. While his production has substantially droppped off since then, Garnett’s role on the young Wolves team far outweighs points and rebounds as he tutors Karl-Anthony Towns.
While the Wolves probably won’t make the playoffs this year (or next year), the knowledge passed down from Garnett to Towns will prove invaluable as the Rookie of the Year candidate. Towns will be seeking to do what both Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love failed to do before him and bring a championship to Minnesota.
The situation for Garnett differs significantly to that of Pierce and Duncan, but his retirement at the end of the season, combined with a ROTY win for Towns, would be the ultimate circle of life storyline.
Honourable mentions
Andre Miller – “The Professor” as he’s affectionately known – has been in the NBA since 2000 and has played for eight different teams throughout his time in The Association. From his debut with the Cavaliers in 2000 up until 2008, Miller consistently ranked inside the top 10 in assists per game and played and NBA record 632 consecutive games before being suspended.
Miller offers little else outside of his veteran leadership and probably won’t be resigned as rookie Tyus Jones is given his opportunity to play.
Caron Butler is another journeyman who has receded to a bench role. The two-time NBA All Star was once a viable third option on contending championship teams. But after short stints in Milwaukee and Oklahoma, Butler settled into an incredibly underwhelming season with the Detroit Pistons where he averaged 6 points per game.
The 2016-17 season is a player option for Butler, which he may decline to further promote his new book Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA.
Jason Terry is probably the most charismatic player on this list. ‘Jet’ rarely lacked the confidence to take and make the big shots. An NBA Champion with the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, it was Terry who sealed the title with 27 points off the bench in the penultimate game of the series.
Since then, Terry has played for the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets and still remained a substantial threat from three point territory.
However his lateral quickness has certainly deteriorated as he struggles to keep up with the likes of Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving and Steph Curry. As much as he would hate to admit it, this may be the final year for Jason Eugene Terry.
While these players won’t have quite the farewell that Kobe has been treated to, their names will be remembered for generations to come for reinvigorating the NBA, both on and off the court.
They haven’t announced their respective retirements just yet, so best to appreciate their games, their ups and their downs, their layups and their free throws, before it’s all gone and all we have is their retired jerseys hanging from the rafters above us, looking down upon a new generation of NBA players.
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