Which players had to the best end to their Careers?

[T_L_P]

??

[dubeta]

Not Kobe

[Kobe_6/8]

Ray Allen's was nice

[dubeta]

Not Jordan either, he averaged a 47%TS and missed the playoffs the last 2 seasons of his career.

[aj1987]

Bill Russell

[Natureland]

David Robinson's was pretty great

[outbreak]

Duncan if he retires at the end of this season had a nice twilight

[Collie]

Magic? Still an MVP candidate during his last year, though it ended prematurely. If you're talking guys who retired due to age, Drexler was a guy I remember who was still great during his final year.

[STATUTORY]

Duncan if he retires at the end of this season had a nice twilight

if we ignore the off the court allegations maybe

[T_L_P]

if we ignore the off the court allegations maybe

So mad that Kobe is shitting the bed that you've starting making Duncan comments today.

It's hilarious. :oldlol:

[JT123]

Not Kobe
This

[sammichoffate]

Peja Stojakovich retired after the Mavs got their rings :cheers:

[Young X]

Bill RussellLed his team as the player/coach to a championship IN Los Angeles against Wilt/West/Baylor in the last game he ever played. It was a game 7 too.

[Rake2204]

David Robinson's was pretty greatThat was the first one to come to mind. I was going to add Kevin Willis' name in there because he was on that '03 squad as well. But then I realized he played all the way until 2007, at age 44. Good grief.

[JohnFreeman]

Gary Payton?

[WayOfWade]

Bill Russell
Probably this; it doesn't get any better than winning a game 7 on your biggest rivals' home floor while they have balloons in the rafters. My vote goes to Bill Russel.
As for anyone else, David Robinson managed to go out on top of I can remember correctly. Ray Allen ALMOST had a storybook ending, winning back to back to go out of the League. I like the way Pippen and Billups went back to their original teams to finish things up, that's always a nice way to go. But Bill takes the cake

[kennethgriffin]

bill russell has to be the best


the worst has to be jordan


that wizards shit tainted his career hardcore. atleast kobes shitty ending came as a laker



going from a walk off game winning shot/title/fmvp/season mvp retirement


to


missing playoffs, not even 3rd team all nba. not voted to the allstar game, fired from washington

[Noyze]

David Robinson's was pretty great

Was thinking this. He had a solid last season and his last game as a Spur was incredible.

[ImKobe]

Kobe, when he gracefully retired after sinking the 2 FTs with a ruptured achilles.

Just like Wizards MJ and Raptors Hakeem, post-achilles Kobe will not exist in our memories.

[JT123]

bill russell has to be the best


the worst has to be jordan


that wizards shit tainted his career hardcore. atleast kobes shitty ending came as a laker



going from a walk off game winning shot/title/fmvp/season mvp retirement


to


missing playoffs, not even 3rd team all nba. not voted to the allstar game, fired from washington
Wizards Jordan may have sucked, but he was 10 times the player Kobe currently is. :no:
And how you gonna straight up lie about Jordan not being voted an all star? He was voted a starter over several more deserving players, just like Kobe has been the last few years.

[kennethgriffin]

Wizards Jordan may have sucked, but he was 10 times the player Kobe currently is. :no:
And how you gonna straight up lie about Jordan not being voted an all star? He was voted a starter over several more deserving players, just like Kobe has been the last few years.


yeah but it was a way bigger drop off for jordan


kobe went from a 1st team all nba player in 2013 with no real chance at a title

to a guy who tore his achilles and still had no chance at a title


jordan went from a game winning championship shot walk off MVP/FMVP best moment in sports history



to no playoffs/no all nba/no all defense/not voted in ASG/ fired


thats insane... and it ruined his lifetime bull resume



this is the only thing that makes me feel good about kobes ending. it wasnt nearly as embarrassing

[poido123]

Duncan if he caps off this year with another finals appearance.


Consistent dominance for a long period of time. Definitely one of the greatest dynasties.

[kennethgriffin]

Duncan if he caps off this year with another finals appearance.


Consistent dominance for a long period of time. Definitely one of the greatest dynasties.


duncans achilles wasnt put under the same stresses for the last half of his career


pop did a great job managing his games/minutes/touches

[poido123]

yeah but it was a way bigger drop off for jordan


kobe went from a 1st team all nba player in 2013 with no real chance at a title

to a guy who tore his achilles and still had no chance at a title


jordan went from a game winning championship shot walk off MVP/FMVP best moment in sports history



to no playoffs/no all nba/no all defense/not voted in ASG/ fired


thats insane... and it ruined his lifetime bull resume



this is the only thing that makes me feel good about kobes ending. it wasnt nearly as embarrassing



He changed teams. He got old.


His skills didn't fall off and he still had 20 ppg in him right till the day he retired.



Bad example.

[kennethgriffin]

He changed teams. He got old.


His skills didn't fall off and he still had 20 ppg in him right till the day he retired.



Bad example.



but he threw away the greatest ending ever for something 100000 million times worse



kobe just went from a good ending to a shit ending


kobes 2013 drop off to now is like losing 5 million dollars in the stock market


jordans 1998 drop off to 2003 is like losing 40 billion dollars in the stock market



jordan as of right now is just looked at as the goat basketball player


if he ended in 1998 he goes down with jesus christ type status

[IllegalD]

Definitely not Duncan.

He hasn't even been his teams best player in nearly a decade (first it was Parker, now its Leonard/Aldridge).

Has basically been a glorified roleplayer for the past 6 years on a stacked team with the GOAT coach and given lead dawg respect/credit for it.

Kobe was a Top 3 player in the league just 2 seasons ago, balling out like a GOAT in 2013.

[dhsilv]

yeah but it was a way bigger drop off for jordan


kobe went from a 1st team all nba player in 2013 with no real chance at a title

to a guy who tore his achilles and still had no chance at a title


jordan went from a game winning championship shot walk off MVP/FMVP best moment in sports history



to no playoffs/no all nba/no all defense/not voted in ASG/ fired


thats insane... and it ruined his lifetime bull resume



this is the only thing that makes me feel good about kobes ending. it wasnt nearly as embarrassing

Show me a guard who was better at 40? Jordan's wizard years were comic book level impossible like the rest of his career. Sadly people missed how absurd what he was doing really was.

[dhsilv]

I guess the question is should we penalize a guy who retiring too early? Even if it was due to injuries, isn't that worse than having a few bad years?

It's hard for me to give it to a guy like say Russel over a Kareem when Kareem played nearly a decade longer. Much like how i like the Jordan ending with the wizards over the 98 just because MJ was too young to retire, it was like getting cheated.

I really liked Jason Kidd's career ending. He might have stayed a year longer than he should have, but loved seeing him change his game to win with the mavs. I'm LOVING what Vince has done. Duncan clearly is having an all time great ending. Kareem similarly. David Robinson was great as others have mentioned. Pippen was another great one (forgot about his return to the bulls...scratch that).

[AirFederer]

Russell

MJ in 98,but then he came back :lol

[DMV2]

Russell

MJ in 98,but then he came back :lol
Stupid, stupid decision....perhaps a precursor to his GM/owner career. :lol