NBA super scorers LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki have something in common: looming retirement. However, they should be warned as early as today that not all retirements end in fairyland.
Consider two of the greatest players that NBA hard court has ever seen. Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson have commonality of returning to court and exposing their dwindling talents. It may not have affected their status in basketball but arguably remain as tarnish in their illustrious career. So why NBA players keep on coming even after making the last shot?
According to ESPN, human nature dictates that any change is unacceptable. People tend to resist instead of submit to drastic situations and much can be said of NBA. While it scares senior-aged employees to leave their desks, NBA players' worst nightmare is leaving the game being 35-ish. How much more for very effective players?
According to Yahoo Sports,Kobe Bryant made his final NBA trick through highly publicized re-immersion to typical life. Tim Duncan left the court and bannered his legacy as the last of this generations' great hoopster. So magnificent is the ability of these two future hall of famers to detect that they have played their last. They chose to fade as NBA legends rather that washed up memory of what they once were.
The culprit for typical NBA players ending in disaster is the itch of trying to prove more. Players do peak at some point then plummets to mediocrity. It might be a good trait to recognize when downfall is about to begin. Then it is time to gracefully fade away from the spotlight.
Dissecting the current NBA free agency, 24 players remain in limbo. This figure is about 10 percent of the original figure in July. Think of J.R. Smith, Kevin Martin, Andre Miller among others. Could the argument that they failed to notice they are past their game be used against them? We can start further discussion in the comments section below.
