And thanks for stating it in such an eloquent way.

was the 2nd best writer in this piece – well done, TZ.

While I was never the biggest fan of Reefer, I probably had more faith in him than most. I felt bad for the guy for reasons listed above. I met him at Bibby’s bowling thing and he was on the side of the bowling alley with Coach Theus where nobody was bothering them. He played the most uninterrupted game of all the players, including K9(woof!). I felt bad for him and would have bothered him for a picture if I hadn’t already done so when he first came out. I was also slightly looking forward to his comeback, just to see if he still had it.

Shareef is one bad mother. I’ll miss him in the court, but feel lucky to still have his leadership off of it.

he was tabbed as a “future All-Star” by Charles Barkley on TNT. And for the record, I agree, he should have been a perennial one.

Just a couple more things to add:

First, although he was consistent more and streaky less, I’ll never forget the time he put up 53 points against the Pistons. This is notable in part because he was guarded by none other than defensive powerhouse Ben Wallace, when Ben was at the height of his prowess.

Second, I will forever consider it a huge failure for the Bulls to not secure Shareef’s services in the post in 2005. Part of it is that Shareef had his pick, and chose the Nets, then chose Sacramento when the Nets called him on his bum knee (how prescient that seems now).

The Bulls were in the third and final year of the regrettable Baby Bulls era, and needed to beef up their frontline scoring. They were back on the upswing, having just made the playoffs again for the first time since the Jordan era. And in the midst of this upswing, Curry’s heart condition resulted in him being traded, meaning that the Bulls would embark upon their extremely well documented quest to find a post scorer.

They ended up with PJ Brown, then Joe Smith, and even more regrettably, they ended up with a running-on-fumes Ben Wallace at center.

Well, the Bulls still don’t have any scoring punch at the 4, and over the last 3 seasons I’ve watched the Kings feed ’Reef in the post for his sublime ability to score on contested shots up close, no matter who was guarding him.

Shareef, you never became the perennial All-Star, but your abilities are unquestioned by any observant NBA fan.

The weird thing of it is that I’m trying to think of comparable NBA players who had the same workmanlike effort, the same technical brilliance, and yet the same under-the-radar public perception. And I’m struggling.

I guess the closest I can come to that is Elton Brand during his Bulls days. Except that EB had always been in a large market city. And also, he hasn’t displayed quite the same low post offense that Shareef did, despite his 20-10 stat line.

Having watch both Rasheed Wallace and Shareef play for many years I think one can make the case that if these two were to swtich careers and Shareef was given the same opportunities as Rasheed, i.e. being on the Pistons during their championship runs, Shareef would have just as many championships as Rasheed. They are both tireless workers who score and rebound. Its just too bad Shareef never got the supporting cast he needed to win.

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