LOLs broseph. You still haven't stated your opinion. You are just sniping mine. And yeah, I know that list you posted. Did you just now find it? I've known that list since I went to Cleveland once to watch Lebron live, and looked into their rafters and started laughing. Austin Carr? r e a l l y I'm not so sure Rick Adelman agrees with you.
Well, he was better than Divac. So, that's the problem when you start using banners in the rafters for marketing reasons...it dilutes the honor. Once you put Divac up there,,,,you have to put Peja up there, too.
I have no opinion on it. If they want it retired then I have no problem with that. It's their team and their player. Obviously it means a lot to them if they want to retire his jersey so let them. Cool story bro. Sure, I guess.
FIFY. I have no problem with it, either. If a competitor wants to retire a bunch of numbers and that might help the Rockets' ability to lure a Superstar wearing #12 because the Kings would have to demand he change his number because Maurice Stokes' #12 is already in the rafters. That's good for us.
Peja was a great player and was an MVP candidate at one time and was a huge part of those great kings teams. He def deserves it
I think for individual teams, it should also be about their impact in the community and the joy they brought. Kings 1998-2004 were an amazing team. If they won a championship in 2002, I wouldn't care if they retired the entire starting lineups jersey. Sacramento was rocking and their fans won't forget.
Peja was better than Martin. Peja was arguably a better shooter, definitely a better passer, and better rebounder. The only thing Martin is better is drawing foul.
^ i assumed when I said Peja is a 6'9 version of Kevin Martin people would know I mean he's better. But Peja was fools gold You guys make it sound like Peja was the best player on his team. Hell. Turkoglu proved to be a better playoff player than Peja
Definitely agree with heypartner on this one. Pretty silly who the Kings have retired. As for the Rockets...also agree with you (and I see your point about Drexler as well, BUT I'd argue he's more deserving than Yao since Drexler won a title). The title changes everything -- without Drexler, there would be no second title. I do agree with you about Yao -- his play just didn't warrant such an honor, but he's being honored for "contributions to the game" which is why he'll also end up in the HOF (which I don't agree with either).
Considering how their lives were uprooted by war, and considering the sizable wartime immigrant Serbian/Yugoslavs in No Cal, it's really cool to see Peja's name go up on the rafters with his fellow countryman, Vlade. Well deserved. Classy move by the Kings.
I disagree that Drexler is more deserving than Yao. Yao played twice as much, score more than twice as much than Drexler as a Rocket. Number retirement is not just about the greatness of the player but also about how much that player contributed to the franchise. We won a title without Drexler. What evidence do you have that we couldn't have won a second title with the same team? I am not saying that Drexler had nothing to do with the second title. But just because he happened to join a championship team at the end of his prime does not mean as much as if your whole career was spent contributing to the team. Drexler's number deserved to be retired by Portland, not by Houston.
+1 On a related note, I still mourn that that Kings-Nets series didn't happen. Would've been probably the best basketball spectacle to occur in the NBA in the last decade. Just imagine that Kings team, where everyone could run, shoot, pass, and just generally play old-school fundamental ball against the JKidd-RJeff-KMart Nets. It would've been absolutely amazing to watch.
I might be biased (haha), but I don't see us beating Utah without Drexler. IMO Vlade Divac definitely shouldn't be on the list. None of the others are totally outrageous, though.
Well we got to see Kings and Dallas play an incredibly fast paced 7 game series the followingyear. Do you remember that 141-137. 2OT Kings might have won it all that year too, but Webber went down in Game 5 of the Mavs series. So sad. I don't think the Spurs would have beaten them Without Drexler, Mad Max doesn't break bad and get kicked off the team. And he destroys Hornachek again. [EDIT] and we still have Thorpe on Karla instead of Pete Chillcut
The Lakers probably should have retired Mikan's number though. No need to retire anyone else's on those teams, but Mikan was Mikan, come on. Otherwise, since they don't really care about the Minneapolis years, maybe they can scratch those five stars from center court, no?
Agreed, one of the worst moments in NBA history. Shaq and Kobe have an asterisk by that championship. Adelman, Peja, and C Web really deserved that one. Peja was really fun to watch back then.
When Dallas won in 2011, Dallas did a GREAT job finding Peja for that 3. And Peja had that desire to make it too. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/I--LFXAM5xs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> As much as I am a one sided Texas team supporter (Rockets), I really wanted the exact same, original Dallas 2011 Title winning team to compete one more time. I was disappointed when the whole team was dismantled, and the fact that Peja retired as well. I was hoping he would at least sign as a veterans minimum with some high profile team. I miss watching Peja shooting those 3's!
