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    • 5 Great NBA Players who retired too early due to injury

    by admin in NBA | Comments Off on 5 Great NBA Players who retired too early due to injury

    No matter how great a player is, he has to retire one day. But there are some players whose career ended rather prematurely and in a tragic manner.

    Careers may be cut short to various reasons but one of the most common is some chronic injury. Let’s take a look at some of those players who were extremely talented but could not play enough and retired too soon due to some injury.

    Yao Ming

    Yao Ming was a revolutionary figure in terms of popularizing NBA all over the world. The tallest player of his time suffered many foot injuries throughout his career and had to undergo surgeries many times. After playing eight injury plagued seasons in NBA, he announced his retirement on July 20, 2011. If he had stayed healthy and played few more years in the league then he could ended up being one of best centers in NBA history.

    Ralph Sampson

    Ralph Sampson, the first round pick in 1983 NBA draft showed a lot of promise in the first few years of his career. He averaged 21.0 points and 11.1 rebounds in his rookie season, which was a clear indication of his ability and talent. Unfortunately, he fall victim to knee injury in just fourth year of his career. After that, he was never the same player. He started to miss a lot of games and his consistency also affected immensely. Once who was averaging 20.7 points could not make more than 2.2 points per game in the last year of his career. It was indeed a tragic end of such a great player.

    Bill Walton

    Bill Walton was another talented player whose career was ruined by multiple injuries. He battled injury problems even before entering NBA and these injuries kept him out many games throughout his career but a foot injury in 1978-79 season proved to be the final blow. After playing just 14 games for San Diego Clippers in 1979-80, he remained sidelined for entire next two seasons. In 1982, he fought his way back into the court but could not appear regularly due to injuries. Although he went through many surgical operations but never fully recovered and finally decided to quit NBA. The number of games he missed in his career is staggering. Out of 680 NBA games, he missed 488 games.

    Pete Maravich

    Selected 3rd overall in 1970 NBA draft, Pete Maravich was known for his flamboyant style and extravagant moves. His injury issues started in 1975-76 season but those minor injuries could not prevent him from performing well on the court. He was in the prime of his career when he sustained serious injuries on both knees. The injuries grew worse over the time and resulted in the early exit of another great player.

    Allan Houston

    Allan Houston was a prolific three point shooter who initially played for Detroit Pistons and then for New York Knicks. He experienced knee injury in the 10th year of his career. That same year, he underwent surgery as well but could not recover properly. After struggling knee injuries for more than two years he announced his retirement on Oct. 17, 2005.




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