The San Antonio Spurs gave power forward LaMarcus Aldridge a chance to win a NBA championship by buying him out. He then signed with the Brooklyn Nets, joining forces with Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
He played five games for Brooklyn averaging 12.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 2.2 blocks while playing 26 minutes per contest. Aldridge best all-around game came in his first game with his new franchise when he scored 11 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out six assists along with two steals and a block. His highest scoring output came against the New Orleans Pelicans when he scored 22 points.
Aldridge did sit out the last two games for the Nets and today he announced his retirement on Twitter from the NBA. He said “I’ve made the difficult decision to retire from the NBA. For 15 years, I’ve put basketball first, and now it’s time to put my health and family first.”
It’s important to note that as a rookie Aldridge got diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome which causes a rapid heart beat. In 2017 he missed time due to a heart arrhythmia and Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said “somebody says a heart, you start thinking a little more possible long-term kind of stuff, that’s a little scary.”
Today he mentioned in his tweet that in his last game he played that his heartbeat was irregular and he stated “later on that night the rhythm got worse which really worried me even more.” thankful he got advised by the Nets to go to the hospital.
He did say “though I’m better now, what I felt with my heart that night was still one of the scariest things I’ve experienced.”
For Aldridge he got drafted by the Chicago Bulls, yet got traded to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Chicago got ridiculed for the trade as Aldridge excelled in Portland. Those were arguably his best years. In 2013-2014 he averaged 23.2 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1 block per game. While shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 82.2 percent from the free throw line.
In his 15-year career he averaged 20 or more points per game seven times. The only time he didn’t have a scoring average over double figures was his rookie season when he averaged 9 points. Later in his career as more big man became a threat on the perimeter he started to take more threes and in 2019-2020 shot 38.9 percent.
Thankfully Aldridge is doing the right thing by retiring. Health and family is certainly more important than chasing a championship ring.
— LaMarcus Aldridge (@aldridge_12) April 15, 2021