today's insider, all about Shareef

[Boondocks]

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Abdur-Rahim has known nothing but losing

If there is a crack on the basketball court, then chances are Shareef Abdur-Rahim already stepped on it after shattering a mirror in the locker room. Of course, that was before walking under a ladder on his way to the floor while a black cat crossed his path just after hearing that the most talented teammate he's ever had was just traded for a retired point guard.

He could very well be the unluckiest man on the face of the earth to have earned $12.375 million last year.

The all-star power forward for the Atlanta Hawks enters the new season having averaged 20.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in his seven-year NBA career spanning 533 games. For those of you keeping track at home, that's 533 regular-season games, the longest streak of any active player in the league today, without playing a single playoff game.

And for good measure, with the preseason less than two months away, he still has no idea who will be signing his checks, if Jason Terry will be passing him the ball or if coach Terry Stotts took the job because he really wanted it or because Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and New Orleans, among others, didn't want him.

That's 533 plus 82 equals . . .

Abdur-Rahim was selected as the third overall pick of the 1996 draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies. They won 14 games the following season. They won 19 after that and only eight of an abbreviated 50-games schedule after that. That was back when guys like Bryant Reeves and Tony Massenburg and Sam Mack were the second- and third-leading scorers on the team. And just when it looked like they had things figured out with 22 wins one year and 23 the next, the Grizzlies traded him to the Hawks.

The problem was that the Hawks were on their way down as the Grizzlies, now in Memphis, hired general manager extra ordinaire Jerry West and drafted eventual Rookie of the Year Pau Gasol. In Reef's first season with the Hawks, starting center Theo Ratliff played a total of three games after his hip required surgery. Back-up big man Alan Henderson missed 56 games with a bum knee. In all, the Hawks had a league-high 319 games missed due to injury or illness and finished with only 33 wins.

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I have to break in here, as it wasn't West (who was still with the Lakers then) but our Own Billy Knight who made the deal with the Hawks. While as a GM at Vancouver moving to Memphis (that offseason), it was Knight who offered Shareef for in return the 3rd pick and Wright, with that 3rd pick being his favorite player in the entire draft, Pau Gasol.

West had absolutely nothing to do with this, rather a misrepresentation by Chad.

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The following year wasn't any better. After guaranteeing the fans that his team would make the playoffs, head coach Lon Kruger was fired 27 games into the season when it became apparent that he wasn't going to be able to make good on his promise. They won 35 games last season.

In all, Abdur-Rahim's teams have played in a total of 542 games, combining for a record of 154-388. In seven seasons in the NBA, Reef's teams have won only 28.4 percent of their games, or, on average, 23 games a year.

And that was before the Hawks traded 20-point per game Glen Robinson for Terrell Brandon, who scored his final point of his career more than a year ago.

To put that in perspective, Kobe Bryant, who was drafted No. 13 in the same class as Reef, has played on teams that have won 379 games in that same seven-year span and participated in 97 playoff games. Sure, Elton Brand has had it hard, too, going from the Bulls to the Clippers, never making the playoffs but putting up 19.2 points per game and pulling down 10.7 rebounds per game over his career. But he got a new contract this year that will pay him an average of $11.7 million per season for the next six and his teams have won 29.8 percent of their games after going 98-230.

Antawn Jamison, making an average of $13.2 million per season over the next five, has averaged 20.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in his five-year career as his teams have won 30.6 percent of their games. The Warriors are 116-262 since Jamison arrived and have yet to make the playoffs.

Then there's Andre Miller, who also got a new deal that averages out to about $8.5 million per season for the next six. He's put up 14.3 points and 7.9 assists per game for the Cavs and Clippers as those two teams have won 35.9 percent of their games, going 118-210 over four seasons with no playoff appearances. He'll be joining the Nuggets next season after they went 17-65 last year.

And how can we forget Steve Francis. Chances are, he'll be the first one off of this list, but as it stands, he's averaged 20.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.4 assists over four seasons as the Rockets have combined for a 150-178 record with no playoff appearances. He'll make and average of $14.1 million per season in the next six years while his teams have won only 45.7 percent of their games in the last four.

And then there's poor, old Shareef Abdur-Rahim scoring 19.9 points per game last season, 21.2 the year before that and 20.5 the year before that. He went from being one of the most underappreciated players in the league to an all-star to, perhaps, the most unlucky of them all.

And you've got to wonder how much of that six-year, $70.8 million contract he signed back in 1999 he'd give up to participate in just one playoff game before it's all over.

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