# the greatest grizzly just retired



## c_dog (Sep 15, 2002)

Maybe no current grizzlies fan care about him, but for a fan like me who's been supporting the team since their days in Vancouver, it's a very big deal. I'm talking about Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the current greatest grizzly of all time.

http://www.nba.com/kings/news/AbdurRahim_Retires.html









He was a true professional who played with effort and desire despite all the losing. It's unfortunate he never enjoyed any success with the grizzlies and finally had to part ways when the grizzlies relocated.

Hopefully some of the current fans can appreciate this very underrated player for what he has done for the franchise, in the midst of the excitement of the upcoming season. the future looks bright for these young grizzlies with gay and mayo.


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## thaKEAF (Mar 8, 2004)

Hmm.


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## Zuca (Dec 4, 2003)

c_dog said:


> Maybe no current grizzlies fan care about him, but for a fan like me who's been supporting the team since their days in Vancouver, it's a very big deal. I'm talking about Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the current greatest grizzly of all time.
> 
> http://www.nba.com/kings/news/AbdurRahim_Retires.html
> 
> ...


Agreed with you. SAR is the current greatest Grizzly of all time, not Pau Gasol. Good luck for you, SAR.


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## Mr. Hobbes (Jul 1, 2005)

So nobody in Memphis cares about the "greatest Grizzly". Hmm.


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## MemphisX (Sep 11, 2002)

The greatest Grizzly ever is still Pau Gasol.


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

I respect SAR, but this is like saying Shawty Lo is the greatest rapper in D4L history.


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## c_dog (Sep 15, 2002)

Shareef is the greatest grizzly because he not only produced, but he stayed being a true professional. The Vancouver Grizzlies had probably the worst management in the history of sports, from poor draft picks, some of the worst trades in history of nba, and horrible hirings from coaches to general manager. Despite all this Shareef played with passion and effort every game, and even though all the losing got to him eventually, he stayed loyal to the franchise. I remember him discussing about possiblity of being traded near the end of his tenure with the grizzlies and he had tears in his eyes because on one hand he wanted to go somewhere where he could hopefully enjoy success, but at the same time he didn't want to disappoint the fans. That's the kind of loyalty I never saw from Pau Gasol, who despite having a way better supporting cast, just whined and whined about everything. If the grizzlies never moved to memphis, Reef probably would have retired as a grizzly.

I don't want to offend the new grizzly fans with that comment on Pau, but from someone who's followed the team longer, I still think SAR was the greatest. It's very possible that Gay or Mayo can eventually surpass him as the greatest grizzlies, but at this very moment, I just want some young grizzlies fans to get to know a classy professional who helped get this franchise to the point where it is today.

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/shareef_abdur-rahim/career_stats.html
Shareef's career stats. Those numbers look similar to what's expected of Rudy Gay actually. 20/8 with 1 block, just over 1 steal.


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## c_dog (Sep 15, 2002)

Dre™ said:


> I respect SAR, but this is like saying Shawty Lo is the greatest rapper in D4L history.


The only person who came close to having Shareef's impact was pau gasol, pau gasol the crybaby. Gasol had competent GM's(jerry west), good coaches(hubie brown, mike fratello), and some nice supporting cast(shane battier, mike miller, jason williams, james posey, bonzi wells, rudy gay, hakim warrick, etc) That's more than Shareef ever got. The grizzlies were probably the deepest team in the league from 1-12 during hubie brown era. Everything going so well for him in memphis and he still managed to find stuff to cry about.

And just in case you didn't know, shareef's production were on par with gasol's, if not better. gasol had more blocks by being 7'2 but that's about it. Shareef has a very good case of being the greatest grizzly.


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## Mr. Hobbes (Jul 1, 2005)

20 and 8 is nothing to fawn over. If you look at the past team success, his impact in the grand scheme of things is close to zero. He didn't take his team anywhere.


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## c_dog (Sep 15, 2002)

Chan said:


> 20 and 8 is nothing to fawn over. If you look at the past team success, his impact in the grand scheme of things is close to zero. He didn't take his team anywhere.


he had no supporting cast, and no good coaches. it's hard to win when there aren't many good players around you. his impact on the team was the only thing stopping them from going 0-82. people act like he didn't care when in fact he played his heart out every game. I remember this game against indiana where he scored all of grizzlies' 20 fourth quarter points and carried the team to victory.

and the grizzlies as a franchise really hasn't had much team success, period. the best they've done is get sweeped in the first round. the lack of respect for Reef and twisted facts around here is ridiculous. seriously, if you've never watched him play for the grizzlies, stop making up false claims.


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## GNG (Aug 17, 2002)

Pau Gasol is the greatest Grizzly because, well, he's the greatest player we've had.


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## Zuca (Dec 4, 2003)

c_dog said:


> he had no supporting cast, and no good coaches. it's hard to win when there aren't many good players around you. his impact on the team was the only thing stopping them from going 0-82. people act like he didn't care when in fact he played his heart out every game. I remember this game against indiana where he scored all of grizzlies' 20 fourth quarter points and carried the team to victory.
> 
> and the grizzlies as a franchise really hasn't had much team success, period. the best they've done is get sweeped in the first round. the lack of respect for Reef and twisted facts around here is ridiculous. seriously, if you've never watched him play for the grizzlies, stop making up false claims.


:clap::clap::clap:


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## MemphisX (Sep 11, 2002)

c_dog said:


> he had no supporting cast, and no good coaches. it's hard to win when there aren't many good players around you. his impact on the team was the only thing stopping them from going 0-82. people act like he didn't care when in fact he played his heart out every game. I remember this game against indiana where he scored all of grizzlies' 20 fourth quarter points and carried the team to victory.
> 
> and the grizzlies as a franchise really hasn't had much team success, period. the best they've done is get sweeped in the first round. the lack of respect for Reef and twisted facts around here is ridiculous. seriously, if you've never watched him play for the grizzlies, stop making up false claims.


He never went anywhere his entire career. It is not a lack of respect and the facts are not twisted. Nobody cares about how hard you play, it is about wins. If Rudy Gay is a lazy ***, 4 time All Star who takes us to the WC finals then he is top dog.

Only time playing hard and intangibles come into play as a significant quality is when you are either losing or unproductive. Gasol has proven to be a top dog on a 50 win team. Gasol has proven to be a 2nd option on a chapmionship caliber team. Gasol was an All Star in Memphis. Gasol has been as productive as Shareef. If all you got is your perception, that does not make him the greatest Grizz it makes him your favorite. Big difference.


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## c_dog (Sep 15, 2002)

MemphisX said:


> He never went anywhere his entire career. It is not a lack of respect and the facts are not twisted. Nobody cares about how hard you play, it is about wins. If Rudy Gay is a lazy ***, 4 time All Star who takes us to the WC finals then he is top dog.
> 
> Only time playing hard and intangibles come into play as a significant quality is when you are either losing or unproductive. Gasol has proven to be a top dog on a 50 win team. Gasol has proven to be a 2nd option on a chapmionship caliber team. Gasol was an All Star in Memphis. Gasol has been as productive as Shareef. If all you got is your perception, that does not make him the greatest Grizz it makes him your favorite. Big difference.


i hate to sound like a broken record but those vancouver grizzlies had horrible horrible supporting cast and horrible personnel. gasol had more success than reef because he played with better players, but his impact on the team was never quite like reef's. as the team's leader, gasol was soft which led to the team getting sweeped in the playoffs. this team, despite having wins in the regular season, just gets destroyed in the post season with their soft mentality. gasol was also a cancer and a distraction near the end of his tenure with all his whining and demands to be traded despite being in a pretty good situation(pretty good supporting cast, and young studs like rudy gay, conley expected to be real good players). if Shareef had someone as talented as a prime Kobe Bryant, he could be the second option on a championship caliber team also.

You know what, why bother, most of you are just going to keep down-playing reef's accomplishments by bringing up how bad those vancouver grizzlies teams were, despite never seeing him play. nobody can win on bad teams, not even jordan. shareef played for a joke of a franchise in the history of sports, and some of you are too ignorant to see that.


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## GNG (Aug 17, 2002)

c_dog said:


> i hate to sound like a broken record but those vancouver grizzlies had horrible horrible supporting cast and horrible personnel. gasol had more success than reef because he played with better players, but his impact on the team was never quite like reef's. as the team's leader, gasol was soft which led to the team getting sweeped in the playoffs. this team, despite having wins in the regular season, just gets destroyed in the post season with their soft mentality. gasol was also a cancer and a distraction near the end of his tenure with all his whining and demands to be traded despite being in a pretty good situation(pretty good supporting cast, and young studs like rudy gay, conley expected to be real good players). if Shareef had someone as talented as a prime Kobe Bryant, he could be the second option on a championship caliber team also.
> 
> You know what, why bother, most of you are just going to keep down-playing reef's accomplishments by bringing up how bad those vancouver grizzlies teams were, despite never seeing him play. nobody can win on bad teams, not even jordan. shareef played for a joke of a franchise in the history of sports, and some of you are too ignorant to see that.


I'm sorry, but your post in the NBA General thread, saying that Marc Gasol is your least favorite Grizzly just for being Pau's brother, pretty much exposes your bias. Don't condescend to people by claiming they never saw Shareef Abdur-Rahim play like he's some forgotten relic from the past. I, for one, have been following the NBA longer than you have.

You can play shoulda-coulda-woulda with a lot of players. Pau Gasol has the resume and actual accomplishments to back himself up, both in the NBA and internationally. I can also tell you first-hand that Pau Gasol was a professional while with the team and was nothing even approaching a cancer. If he was stirring up that much ****, he would have been dealt a year before he actually was. Despite your perception, the reality is that he wasn't. He can be your favorite, or you can use his career or his retirement to further your bitterness over Gasol, but if you call him the best Grizzly ever, you're clearly in the minority.


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## Mr. Hobbes (Jul 1, 2005)

So he was a 20 and 8 with no supporting cast and no coaches. And he has "professionalism". What does this make him?

Nothing special.


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## eddymac (Jun 23, 2005)

OK what if Pau were on those late 90's Grizzlies teams and Reef played on those 04-06 Grizz would things be different. I felt that in Reef's prime he was a better player than Pau, and no matter how good you are its tough to win with subpar talent aroud you. You have to be real special like a Kobe, KG, Iverson, McGrady etc to be able to carry a subpar team to the playoffs, and unfortunatly Reef was not on their level and like the threadstarter said is more of a second option on a championship team. Reef did play hard and tried his best, but the team did poorly with draft picks and had bad coaches and team management, there is only so much a person can do, and Reef played the cards he was dealt as a Grizzly.


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## c_dog (Sep 15, 2002)

Cinco de Mayo said:


> I'm sorry, but your post in the NBA General thread, saying that Marc Gasol is your least favorite Grizzly just for being Pau's brother, pretty much exposes your bias. Don't condescend to people by claiming they never saw Shareef Abdur-Rahim play like he's some forgotten relic from the past. I, for one, have been following the NBA longer than you have.
> 
> You can play shoulda-coulda-woulda with a lot of players. Pau Gasol has the resume and actual accomplishments to back himself up, both in the NBA and internationally. I can also tell you first-hand that Pau Gasol was a professional while with the team and was nothing even approaching a cancer. If he was stirring up that much ****, he would have been dealt a year before he actually was. Despite your perception, the reality is that he wasn't. He can be your favorite, or you can use his career or his retirement to further your bitterness over Gasol, but if you call him the best Grizzly ever, you're clearly in the minority.


marc gasol was more of a joke than anything. if i dislike gasol it's because he's soft, always cracking under pressure and shying away from big moments. he did that when the grizzlies needed him, and he did it again in the finals for the lakers. another reason i dislike gasol is because he was unloyal to the franchise, to the point where he publicly whined to the media about it and demand to be traded. for these reasons that i dislike gasol also makes shareef the better player.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Rahim was the ultimate stats player. He wasn't Zach Randolph off the court, but he would get his numbers and the team would lose. Big deal. This guy was nothing special, seriously.


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## jayk009 (Aug 6, 2003)

there's so much disrespect for SAR on here. Non vancouver grizzlies fans just won't understand what kind of player he is. 

He is one of my favourite players and he was truly a one of a kind player. 


Dont disrespect him if u barely ever saw him play...whoever said taht hes like Zach Randolph clearly has never seen SAR play in his prime...


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## sologigolos (May 27, 2003)

ooh i wandered in to talk about Darrell Arthur's 15 rebound game, and saw this, let me chime in.
I was 13 or so when Shareef first came in to the league, I used to think he was a punk, comin in after only 1 year in college (where as a freshman he was named to Third Team All-America). He was chosen 3rd overall in a draft that had most talent/hype on draft night (seriously. We call 84 draft the best in history in retrospect, no one knew barkley or stockton would do what they did, and we call 03 draft arguably best because of Bron/Melo/Wade/and to a lesser extent Bosh, but Wade def wasn't all that before he stepped foot on an NBA court) where the top 5 picks (Iverson, Camby, Reef, Starbury, Ray Ray) were thought to be on the way to Hall of Fame careers and 6th (Antoine Walker) would at least have a few All-Star nods (and in reality, except for Starbury, they have all had great careers, not to mention Kobe, JO, Peja, and Nash [definitely whotheFKKKK pick of the decade]). The dude had so much talent that it wasn't even funny. 
(Actually, their later draft picks during Shareef's career wasn't all that bad: Antonio Daniels (the only better player in that draft was Duncan and TMac), Bibby, Francis)

And he brought it on court. 20-8 isn't that much, but you got a better alternative? Look, the Reefers are not trying to make a case for his Hall candidacy. He was the best Grizzly ever. I think other than Bryant Reeves, the only member of the Vancouver Grizzlies that anybody can even be bothered to recall.

When I was 13, and just opening up my eyes to the world of sports outside Boston, Reef was my answer, man. I loved watching Reef play,mainly because that meant my C's would actually have a chance at winnign that night, but also because Reef was a hell of a player. If KG was never traded to the Celtics and retired without ever getting back into the playoffs (seriously, he'd be what, 35 by the time they even got back in, let alone advance), would you write him off like you write off Reef? Does Barry Sanders lose his title as the greatest Lion? 
Man, reef was the reason anybody in the US ever even bothered to watch the Grizz. Yeah he ain't nothing great, a 20-8, not even that sometimes, but that's the best thing that Grizz has had. Gasol may have given you the 50 wins, but he also gave you 22 just 2 years ago. Yeah he was injured, all that, but he was still healthy for 2/3 of the season putting up healthy numbers. That's still a 30 win team. Not much better than Reef, huh? The big diff for y'all was Posey and Battier. Shoot, based on your criteria, i'd probably say Battier was the greatest Grizzly ever (and you know, my ranking would at least put the two on the same level)


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## Finchstatic (Dec 24, 2004)

chucky atkins and damon stoudamire is the best grizzlies of all time

next is OJ mayo.


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## bandits1 (Mar 26, 2006)

I'm not sure who the greatest Grizzly is...but I do know which one was my favorite:









...seriously. I liked watching him play - he could score on anybody. If only he managed to get in shape he would've been alright.


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