Worst NBA Player with Longest Career

shaggylambda · Aug 2, 2009

shaggylambda said:

Confirmed. My dad almost had a heart attack when he heard Bill Worrell say his name on TV.
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SirCharlesFan · Aug 2, 2009

angrykitty said:

Joe Kleine (Arkansas) and John koncack (SMU) were considered top college centers (mainly because they were 7 footers) along with one Akeem Olajuwon! We see how that turned out in the NBA. UH and Arkansas were at top of SWC in thoses days and had epic battles.
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I live in Arkansas and Joe Klein is still somewhat of a local celebrity due to being on the radio and owning a few barbeque restaurants.

Here is a funny, somewhat related, anecdote about Kleine:

In the summer of 2000, Joe Kleine was driving just outside of Fayetteville, Ark., when his agent, Jeff Austin, called and told him to get to a fax machine immediately. The Portland Trail Blazers wanted to pay Kleine $1.2 million and package him with Jermaine O'Neal to get Dale Davis from Indiana.

Kleine was 38. His playing days were over, and he thought Austin was kidding. When Austin assured him it wasn't a joke, Kleine pulled over, found a fax machine and signed the deal -- a windfall that was just $35,000 less than the highest salary of his 15-year career.

"I thought I had just hit the lottery," said Kleine, who had scored 11 points in seven games in the previous season in Portland. "My closest, dear friends in the NBA told me that I was worth more dead than alive."

Kleine benefited from a salary cap loophole that allows players to be eligible to be traded if they haven't filed retirement papers and their teams haven't renounced their rights. It has been done for years, but two recent trades brought the practice under some scrutiny.

Kleine, meanwhile, was waived before ever playing for Indiana, but he was grateful. A co-owner of Corky's Ribs & Barbecue in Little Rock, Kleine sent the Trail Blazers a care package of ribs. Now an assistant basketball coach at Arkansas-Little Rock, Kleine said he still hasn't filed his retirement papers. "Keep hope alive," Kleine, 46, said with a laugh. "Lightning may strike twice."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/23/AR2008022302793.html

here is another:

Joe Kleine on playing another season: "It's pretty simple. I was sitting at home at the end of August and somebody called me up and said, 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' I said, 'I do.' And they said, 'Is that your final answer?' I said, 'Let me call my lifeline.' So I called Dana [his wife] and she said, 'If you don't take it, I'll kill you.'"
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