Thanks for everything Shareef. I’m glad the Kings could get you to at least one playoff series and i hope Petrie gives you a job within the organization. You are a class act.

Shareef for being a true professional during your seemingly brief stay in Sactown.

I’ll remember the 27 and 9 you put up on Duncan during Game 2 of the San Antonio series in ’06.

All the best!

Two moments of Shareef I will not forget: how he managed to get a technical with his jaw wired shut (and just playing hard in that condition in general), and taking it to Duncan the last time the Kings saw the playoffs. Thanks for your time with the Kings!

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Reef. I’ve always held a deep hatred of Stu Jackson for picking him 3rd in the 96 draft. I think Reef’s talents, and the fact he’s been on one playoff team in his career, was simply bad luck. The cat always came to play, and always wanted to do the right thing. It was the reason he ended up on perenially poor sub 500 teams. It’s why he was always playing with bad franchises (Vancouver, Atlanta), or franchises going thru a ton of turmoil (Portland, Sacramento). One of the things I always hoped to see was that Reef get a chance for a ring so somebody could mention him as a player with the virtues that he had, and that it does pay to be a good.

Shareef, it was a pleasure to watch you play for 10 years over 4 cities, and it was always fun to root for you regardless of what your jersey. I hope your post basketball career is filled with the same class, dignity, and incredible play that your NbA career had.

the last line of the first paragraph is “it does pay to be a good guy.”

The 2nd line in the 2nd paragraph is" of what your jersey was."

Because I respect Shareef so damn much, I will not discuss the positive salary cap ramifications until at leat 6 p.m. Pacific./blockquote> I refuse to discuss this because I don’t think it has any real salary ramifications except saving the Maloof’s quite a bit of dough in the first place. I truthfully don’t give a shit about the Maloof’s saving money. And if Reef becomes a valuable bench coach helping the young players in the long run it helped the franchise just as much. All I can say is that all this does is that it ensures the Kings won’t come near luxury tax the next 2 season unless they just spend alot of money on extensions and what not.

I really like the idea of Shareef becoming a big man coach for the Kings. I’d love nothing more than to see Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes break out Shareef’s patented spin moves around the hoop.

I was thrilled when we signed Shareef as a free agent. It seems like he was always one of those guys who burned us every time he played us.

I wish he could have stayed healthy, and I wish him all the best. Unless he goes on to coach another team’s bigs, and THEY turn into the guys who always burn us.

I hope the Kings are smart enough to keep him around.

Reef was one of my favorite NBA players, ever. I hope he does stick around to coach. Great person on and off the court.

We know your career will long be considered “What if”, but the respect, love and admiration of your fans will never be questioned. We adored ‘Reef, and while I am not glad he retired, I am glad he retired a King.
Here’s to hoping we see you on the bench this season, looking as spiffy as Theus and making up for that time you could not speak with barkings to the post:
         “Back him down, Spence. Back him down!”
May your talents and knowledge continue on in the youngsters trying to take your place. And the sincerest wishes that your knees improve to where you can live a normal life – you gave your all every game, no need for you to give the game anymore of yourself.

What are the salary cap ramifications here? Is he fully off of the salary-cap ledger for the next two years? Loved you as a player, ’Reef, but I love you even more off the cap.

My research had shown that it was too late to apply for the 2008-09 money to be taken off because he didn’t make his decision to retire until this summer, but I’ve been told that’s not the case. The key factor here is this: the first anniversary of his career-ending injury date. Because Abdur-Rahim played in fewer than 10 games, his date of career-ending injury could be deemed just after his final game played last season (Nov. 12).

If the league-appointed doctor confirms this timeline, then the Kings would apply for the relief just after that date this year and likely wind up getting the final two seasons of Abdur-Rahim’s contract ($6.2 million and $6.6 million, respectively) off of their cap. Abdur-Rahim would be paid in full through the insurance company.

Thanks for clearing this up Sam. There’s a lot of other good stuff in that post too so check it out.