NBA 2018: 5 Lesser Known Retirements This Past Offseason
The last couple of offseasons, we have seen multiple high-profile retirements in the NBA. This should come as no surprise, given the high quality of talent that was drafted in the late 1990s. In 2016, we saw the future Hall of Fame trio of Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett playing their final seasons in the league. Last year, there were multiple mid-tier former Champions that called it quits - Paul Pierce, Metta World Peace, Caron Butler, David Lee and Matt Barnes.
This past offseason, it was time for 41-year old Manu Ginobili to join the club. Despite making just 2 NBA All-Star games and receiving only 2 All-NBA selections (Third Team), Ginobili had a decorated 16-year career with the San Antonio Spurs where he won 4 NBA Championships and was named the Sixth Man of the Year award in 2006.
Not to mention, the pre-NBA accolades such as the Euroleague Champion and Finals MVP [2001], Euroleague Finals Top-Scorer [2001, 02], All-Euroleague First Team [2002],2-time Italian League MVP [2001, 02] and Italian Cup MVP [2002].
But just like the previous two summers, Ginobili announcement unintentionally overshadowed the other players who also retired from the game. Here's the list of those players:
#1 Boris Diaw
Boris Diaw, a French national, who was hugely underrated all through his career.
Now, part of the reason why he couldn't make more noise during his career was because he wasn't the most athletic player on the team. He entered the league when he was 21, as a 27th overall pick in the famous 2003 Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. Right from the beginning of his career, he was a player who could do a little bit of everything - score, rebound, and pass.
While his numbers did showcase that, he couldn't put up impactful numbers in Atlanta. That led to him being traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for future teammate Joe Johnson in the offseason of 2005.
In the 7 seconds-or-less offense of the Suns', Diaw excelled and averaged 13.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1 block [all career-highs] en route to being named the Most Improved Player for the season. He had two hugely successful seasons [2005-06 & 2006-07] in Phoenix, individually and from a team perspective, but when things were going south in the 2007-08 season, he got traded again and this time to Charlotte.
The next four seasons with the Bobcats were great for him individually to jack up his numbers but the team combined for only 85 wins in his three full seasons with the team. He was waived towards the end of the 2012 season by the Bobcats but only a couple of days later, he was picked by the Spurs.
In San Antonio, he had arguably the greatest two-year stint of his career. In his first two full seasons with the team, the Spurs made it to the Finals and faced LeBron James and the Miami Heat both times, winning the second time and avenging a gut-wrenching loss in the 2013 Finals. Although Kawhi Leonard was a deserving Finals MVP in 2014, Diaw had a legitimate case as well.
However, it all went downhill from there. Post-2014, the league, to a certain extent, was imitating the Spurs' pace-and-space three-point shooting system from the Finals but they were doing it with athletic players. Diaw didn't exactly fill that mold. He lasted three more seasons [2 in San Antonio and the 2017-18 season in Utah] but his production and minutes both spiraled before he called it quits a couple of weeks back.
Internationally, Diaw has made 247 appearances for the French National Team and has 5 medals to show for it - 3 Bronze [2014 World Cup, 2005 & 2015 EuroBasket], Silver at the 2011 EuroBasket and finally the Gold at the 2013 EuroBasket.