Aldridge announces his retirement after recent heart issue
LaMarcus Aldridge announced his stunning retirement from basketball on Thursday. The Nets big man, who had played five games with Brooklyn after leaving the Spurs, said in a statement that he had played Saturday night against the Lakers with an irregular heartbeat.
“Though I’m better now, what I felt with my heart that night was still one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “For 15 years, I’ve put basketball first, and now it is time to put my health and family first.”
Aldridge had barely gotten comfortable in Brooklyn. He negotiated a contract buyout with the Spurs on March 10 and left upwards of $7 million on the table in San Antonio to become a free agent and sign with the Nets for a chance to win a championship. His best game as a Net came on April 7, when he scored 22 points, made two threes and blocked two shots in Brooklyn’s 28-point win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Aldridge then played one more game, against the Lakers, before sitting out the next two with an undisclosed but not COVID-19 related illness.
“Last but not least, I want to thank Brooklyn. You wanted mefor me,” Aldridge wrote. “In a game that’s changing so much, you asked me to come and just do what I do, which was good to hear. I’m sorry it didn’t get to last long, but I’ve definitely had fun being part of this special group.”
The abrupt retirement is reminiscent of the situation around former NBA All-Star Chris Bosh, who had to retire from basketball due to blood clots.
From his very brief time as a Net, Aldridge will be best remembered for his candor. The Nets lost to the Lakers in a game where Andre Drummonddominated every big man Brooklyn threw at him. Aldridge was one of those big men and was on the receiving end of a large portion of Drummond’s punishment. He owned that he needed to be better all around for the Nets to win.
“Just got to do a better job of trying to set the tone better. It starts with me. I started out kind of passive tonight and I think that was kind of contagious for everyone else,” he said after the April 10 loss. “It was hard for me to get going tonight but no excuses. I definitely need to be better and I will be better.”
Late Wednesday
Knicks 116, Pelicans 106: At New Orleans, Julius Randle hit contested mid-range shots, at times while fading away from the basket, as the fourth quarter wound down. When Zion Williamson tried to answer, he ran into a wall of defenders in front of the rim, and his Pelicans teammates couldn’t shoot well enough from outside to make the Knicks pay for packing the paint.
Randle scored 32 points against his former team and the Knicks clamped down defensively on Williamson for the victory.
“Zion’s a handful, so wehadtoshowhimas many bodies as we can and get out and cover the shooters,” Randle said. “My teammates just did a great job of being there, showing bodies, giving me help and then making the extraeffort— thesecond-effortplaysofgetting after shooters and making it hard for them.”
Reserve guard Alec Burks scored New York’s first 11 points of the fourth quarter, added a crushing 3 and finished with 21 points for the Knicks, who’ve won four straight for the first time this season.
“Super-impressive,” Randle said of Burks, “That’s a bad boy, man. When he gets on a roll like that, ain’t nothing you can really do with him. So, for me as a leader on the team, I want to just keep feeding him confidence, just giving him whatever he needs just to get going. Because when he plays like that, it makes our team so much more dynamic.”