14/10/2020
In the NBA, situation is everything. Market size largely determines renown, fit largely determines production, and success largely determines popularity. I often wonder how Shareef Abdur-Rahim would be remembered if his situation had been different.
After one monster season at Cal, the 6â9â Abdur-Rahim was chosen third overall in the 1996 draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies, who had just emerged from the franchiseâs inaugural season. It had been a staggeringly woeful campaign: the Grizz went 15-67, and the teamâs leading scorer, Greg Anthony, averaged just fourteen points per game. Blue Edwards started all 82 games, and someone named Chris King started 66. They set an NBA record for consecutive losses with 23 (a mark thatâs since been broken by both the 2010-11 Cavs and the 2013-14 Sixers), and averaged just 89.8 points per game as a team, which ranked dead last in the NBA.
The Grizzlies had been tasked, along with the Toronto Raptors, with bringing the NBA to Canada. It was a tremendous challenge, and one that would certainly be made easier with a buzz-generating superstar. Bryant Reeves, who Vancouver took with the sixth pick in the 1995 draft, was certainly not that. He had a solid rookie season, and his âBig Countryâ persona provided a dash of color, but the Grizzlies couldnât have settled upon a less inspiring first-ever draft pick. When Torontoâs Damon Stoudamire, drafted 7th overall, won the 1996 Rookie of the Year award, it signified a divergence of paths between the NBAâs two Canadian outposts. Without delving further into the factors which would ultimately bring about the utter failure of NBA basketball in Vancouver, letâs just say it was a miserable situation that never improved.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim spent his first five NBA seasons as the face of this failing franchise. It wasnât by choice. Had he fallen to sixth, for instance, and been drafted by Boston, things surely wouldâve turned out differently. Still, he made the most of his situation, averaging 18.7 points per game as a rookie and finishing 3rd in ROY voting (behind Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury) as a member of arguably the greatest draft class of all time. He continued to put up numbers, averaging 21.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game over his next four seasons in Vancouver. In any other generation he wouldâve been considered one of the leagueâs elite power forwards, but unfortunately for âReef, he arrived around the same time as Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Tim Duncan, and Dirk Nowitzki. It was the golden age of the power forward, and âReef, obscured by the remoteness of Vancouver and the losing culture of the Grizzlies, became a relative afterthought.
In June of 2001, after five losing seasons in Vancouver, Abdur-Rahim was traded to Atlanta for Brevin Knight, the late Lorenzen Wright, and the draft rights to Pau Gasol. In Atlanta, it would be more of the same for âReef. He put up big numbers â 21.2 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.1 blocks â and made his first (and only) All-Star game, but the Hawks won just 33 games and âReef missed the playoffs for the sixth straight season. He spent another losing season-and-a-half in Atlanta, averaging over 20 points per game, before being traded to Portland at the â04 trade deadline in exchange for Rasheed Wallace.
Once again, it was bad timing for Shareef, as Wallaceâs departure marked the end of an era in Portland. The Blazers had been a perennial Western Conference power, but their roster bore little resemblance to that which had famously taken Shaq and Kobe to Game 7 just a few years earlier. In Abdur-Rahimâs first season in Portland, the Blazers missed the playoffs for the first time in 21 years. The next season, 2004-05, the team regressed further, winning just 27 games and missing the postseason once again. Abdur-Rahimâs numbers fell to 16 points and 7 rebounds per game in Portland. This was partially due to the presence of fellow power forward Zach Randolph, who had become a standout player seemingly overnight, forcing âReef to play out of position. It was also due, it can be assumed, to the knee pain âReef was dealing with. He was traded to the Nets in the â05 offseason, but failed his physical after scar tissue was discovered in his right knee. The trade was rescinded and he ultimately signed as a free agent with the Kings.
Shareef had been a paragon of durability, missing just nine games over his first eight NBA seasons, but it was becoming apparent that he had almost certainly been playing through some pain. With the Kings, he continued to tough it out, appearing in 72 and 80 games in his first two seasons in Sacramento, and providing solid production in a reduced role. In 2005-06, for the first time in his 10-year career, Shareef Abdur-Rahim made the playoffs, ending his streak of the most games played in NBA history without appearing in the postseason. Unfortunately, Sacramento lost to the Spurs in six games in the first round. Early in the 2007-08 season, his third with the Kings, the pain in âReefâs right knee became too much. He missed most most of the season and retired the following September at the age of 31.
Immediately after announcing his retirement, Abdur-Rahim joined Sacramentoâs coaching staff. In 2010, he was appointed assistant general manager, and eventually became the Kingsâ director of player personnel. He held that job until 2014, when he was let go following a reported draft day dispute with head coach Mike Malone.
Because he wasnât an exciting player, and because he spent his entire career on losing teams, making the playoffs just once, itâs easy to forget just how good Shareef Abdur-Rahim was. He did most of his damage inside of 18 feet, utilizing a variety of runners, half-hooks, and push-shots, along with a deadly turnaround jumper. He could put the ball on the floor, and when he drove right, there was no stopping him. He was a strong finisher, and in his younger days he was fairly athletic, but his dunks never inspired awe. Frankly, nothing about him did â except maybe for his consistency. He averaged over 20 points and seven rebounds per game for six consecutive seasons, and shot better than 80 percent at the foul line for eight straight campaigns. He finished his career with averages of 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, and one steal per game, becoming one of just three players ever to average those numbers while shooting at least 80 percent from the line for their career. The other two? Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird.
âReef was an excellent player who never found the right situation. His Grizzlies teams were some of the worst ever to step onto an NBA court, and that was no fault of his. He was traded to a Hawks team that would have been terrible with or without him, and then the Blazers just as they were committing to a rebuild in the wake of the infamous Jail Blazers era. His final stint was with a rudderless Kings team that had just traded its best player, Chris Webber.
For most of his career â up until his time with the Kings, really â âReef was expected to carry his teams, to be the teamâs best player. Maybe he wasnât that guy. Maybe he wouldâve been better suited as a second or third option on a 50-plus-win team, a rock-solid 15-and-7 guy who could go off for 40 in a playoff game. That would have been a nice situation for him, and itâs unfortunate he never found it.
