The Sacramento Kings announced the retirement of Shareef Abdur-Rahim yesterday, after 12 seasons in the NBA. With his arthritic knee which had troubled him for well over a year, it was no great surprise.
He was a solid contributor before his body gave out on him, but even more importantly, he was a class act and a major off-court basketball ambassador – something well worth mentioning at a time awash with Josh Howard’s.

During the press conference he said, “I just hope that whatever team I was on, whatever city I was in, whatever organization I was with, that my contributions were about more than just playing basketball. If all I did in those situations I was in was play basketball, then I’d say I did a poor job.” Truly wonderful words to come out of an athlete’s mouth.

Abdur-Rahim could have ridden the pine again this coming season and collected his money, but he chose to retire and give the Kings some options (and future cap relief). Thankfully, Geoff Petrie also recognizes class too, and will be offering the veteran a place within the Kings organization. I wish him every success in the next faze of his career.

– MCZF1