Appreciating Newly Retired ‘Reef Abdur-Rahim

Yesterday, Kings forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim retired. He was a good man. A kind man. I always figured that he escaped the “piling up stats on bad teams” label because of his personality and good works. After all, who could forget those early years, when Abdur-Rahim was the star of the fledgling Grizzlies and then, the Hawks. Oh wait, anyone could, because no on paid attention.↵
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↵Thankfully, Ziller, who I suspect also has a soft spot for Reef, has put together a defense of Abdur-Rahim on the court, comparing his blamelessness to that of Elton Brand:↵↵⇥Not 100 players in the history of the NBA have averaged more points per game than Shareef. Only 76 players have a higher career PER, only 78 have more defensive rebounds, only 87 have more offensive rebounds. These are, for the most part, counting stats: numbers you earn by playing a really, really long time. But Shareef didn’t play some absurd long time, only 11 full seasons (one of those shortened by the lockout) ... Some referenced that fact as a knock, as in “Shareef will never wow you.” Another thing Shareef would never do: disappoint, underperform, fail.↵↵

It’s also worth noting that, at the time of 9/11, Abdur-Rahim was the only “out” Muslim in the NBA (Shaq and Hedo, anyone?). A lot of people already think NBA players are out to destroy America, but still, Reef handled a potentially awkward situation with great poise, taking it as an opportunity to educate non-Muslims about the real nature of his religion. An all-around class act, and, as his agent Aaron Goodwin tells The Bee, hardly done with his life as an active human being:↵↵⇥“He’s one of those people where you just know he’s going to succeed no matter what they do, especially if it’s in the business of basketball,” Goodwin said. “It’s actually a good day for me, because I’ve seen him embarking from a basketball player to the business side - whether it’s coaching or whatever he does.↵↵So Reef, this one’s for you. Even if it weren’t the slowest news day ever, we’d still have love for you.↵