Understated Aldridge retires as a pro’s pro
LaMarcus Aldridge wasn’t one to make much noise. He just played. And played well.
One of the best basketball players of his generation and one of the best the state of Texas has ever produced, Aldridge announced his retirement Thursday, leaving after his latest bout with an irregular heartbeat.
Aldridge was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome as an NBA rookie and underwent three ablation procedures in his first six years in the league. It is rare for a person to need more than one.
The Dallas native, who starred at Seagoville High School before going to Texas, played through it for a decade and a half. And played well enough to score the most NBA points of any player born in the Lone Star State.
“Today, I write this letter with a heavy heart,” he posted on Twitter. “My last game, I played while dealing with an irregular heartbeat. Later on that night, my rhythm got even worse which really worried me even more.
“The next morning, I told the team what was going on and they were great getting me to the hospital and getting me
checked out. Though I’m better now, what I felt with my heart that night was still one of the scariest things I’ve experienced.
“With that being said, I’ve made the difficult decision to retire from the NBA. For 15 years, I’ve put basketball first, and now it is time to put my health and family first.”
There is no shame in leaving the game for such a reason. Aldridge leaves as one whose name comes up often when underrated stars are discussed.
If he is underrated, that is by casual fans and certainly not many around the league. He has been an outstanding player throughout his career.
Aldridge wowed me from the moment he stepped onto the practice court at UT to his exit from the league on Thursday.
Simply put him on the low block, let him work and he’d put up 20 points. Period.
More efficient than explosive, Adlridge had an arsenal of moves that were Hakeem-like. No one besides Olajuwon has come close to mastering the Dream Shake, but Aldridge often gave us glimpses of it.
Unfortunately, Aldridge never had a championshipcaliber team around him.
In his best individual stretch (from 2010-11 through 2014-15), Aldridge averaged more than 20 points a game each year, but the Trail Blazers won just one playoff series, in 2014.
Aldridge was phenomenal that postseason, averaging 26.2 points and 10.6 rebounds a game. That included back-to-back 40-point games against the Rockets in a 4-2 Portland series win.
Remember Kevin McHale’s electing to not give any help to the man guarding Aldridge? It was ugly for the Rockets but such beautiful basketball.
Those are among the most dominant offensive displays I have ever seen.
Little wonder former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tried to lure Aldridge to Houston when he left Portland as a free agent in 2015. He landed in San Antonio, where he was until two months ago, when he was set free to join the Brooklyn Nets.
Aldridge was the best player in the 2006 draft. Thanks to lottery luck, which moved it from sixth to No. 1, Toronto had the first choice and went with Andrea Bargnani, leaving Aldridge for Portland at No. 2.
Aldridge finishes his career 47th on the all-time NBA scoring list, having made seven All-Star Games and been named All-NBA five times.
His 19,951 career points are the second-most by a Texas Longhorns player, behind Kevin Durant, and he is one of only 25 players with more than 19,000 points and 8,000 rebounds.
Those are Hall of Fame numbers from a Hall of Fame career.
Probasketballreference.com’s logistic regression model, designed to predict whether a player will be voted into the Hall of Fame, scored Aldridge’s probability at 50.9 percent.
Had he won a couple championships, that percentage would be significantly higher. He would have had an excellent shot at winning one this season with Brooklyn.
He chose health over the chase.
As meaningful as NBA titles are, they fall short in measuring a careers such as Aldridge’s. Aldridge is a championship player without a championship, though.
NBA players flooded social media with tributes to Aldridge, signifying the respect he has among his peers.
He is the type of player with whom others wanted to play.
“We played together (one) season, and you would think we’ve known each other for decades,” Jamal Crawford posted on Twitter. “Your ‘star’ stature never changed you. You never looked at yourself like that, you were just ‘LA.’ I always loved that about you. My brother for life.”
It is a shame Aldridge won’t get to make one more playoff push for a trip to the NBA Finals. But he’s OK with it.
“You never know when something will come to an end, so make sure you enjoy it every day,” Aldridge wrote in his retirement letter. “I can truly say I did just that.”