http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1889785 NEW ORLEANS -- The Hornets are moving to the Western Conference without forward Jamal Mashburn ... for at least one season. Mashburn will miss the entire 2004-05 NBA season because of a knee injury, Mashburn and the team said Monday. The injury kept the 2003 All-Star out of all but 19 games last season. Mashburn said that strenuous activity causes the knee to swell as badly as last March, when his past season ended. He averaged 20.8 points per game. During a news conference, Mashburn acknowledged the injury could end his career, which began in 1993 as a first-round draft choice with the Dallas Mavericks and included a stint with the Miami Heat before joining the Charlotte Hornets in 2000. Mashburn, 31, said retirement is a possibility, but he was holding out hope that he might be able to play. "I have to remain optimistic," he said. "Hopefully, I can get better with rest. This is my livelihood. I have to stay positive. There's no other outlook I can tell." The Hornets' insurance will cover about 80 percent of Mashburn's salary of about $18 million over the last two years of his contract if he is not healthy enough to play. Mashburn's salary will count against the Hornets' as far as the NBA's salary cap is concerned. The cap is currently around $44 million. Trading Mashburn remains a possibility because the insurance will follow him to another team. Hornets general manager Allan Bristow said that while it's clear that Mashburn cannot play this season, he would not rule out a return later. Team trainers said that several MRIs this summer indicated that Mashburn has worn out cartilage in his right knee, causing bones to grind together, leaving a bruise and an irritation. Mashburn and the Hornets said that with rest, the irritation could heal, but they acknowledged there would be a good possibility of re-aggravating the injury if he tried to play again. "I'm hoping with a rest and a lack of pounding, things will heal themselves and maybe there's a possibility in a year or so," Mashburn said. "I just have to take a wait-and-see approach. There's not a particular thing I can do. I've been trying everything. It's a frustrating situation." While the announcement does bring some clarity to the Hornets' plans for their first season in the West, the realization that his season is already over is a big blow for a team moving to a conference with no fewer than 13 legitimate playoff contenders. With Mashburn out, Rodney Rogers and George Lynch will compete to start at small forward, Hornets new coach Byron Scott said. Scott can still build around the talented twosome of point guard Baron Davis and center Jamaal Magloire, but Mashburn's knee troubles rule out the possibility that he might be traded for an asset. Upgrading the roster is a priority for the Hornets in the wake of Davis' recent request to be traded.
SSDD with Mashburn. The dudes a multi-millionaire, he should just retire while he can still walk without a limp.
Just retire... you wont ever be 100%, and the young ones are gunna run circles around you. Just retire.
Time to hang em up. He'll be back and out of his prime and will never be the same again. Though he'll probably stick around at least another 4 years.
As a player your always gonna believe that you have more in the tank and it helps to get paid to recooperate.
Oh my god... that is absolutely insane. I could never, ever, ever be a surgeon. I could probably handle mixing the cement, but that's about it. I can't believe they cut away so much of the bone, and it's just creepy how the knee bone is totally exposed like that. Yikes...
