A new season of sports
Suddenly, the Puerto Rican league team Quebradias Pirates officially announced today: the team's center Hassan Whiteside plans to retire.
Hassan Whiteside, the big guys should remember this player, right? It's the big white side that used to play in the CBA.
The last time Whiteside appeared in the NBA was in the 2021-22 season, when he left the NBA to play in an overseas league. It is estimated that it is not because of the official announcement of retirement this time, many fans are about to forget about this player. Therefore, this time Whiteside did not officially announce his retirement from the NBA, but completely ended his basketball career. Looking at it now, Whiteside's fall was too sudden. From the former king of blocks and rebounds, to the cancer of the team that is disliked by various teams, it seems to be a matter of an instant. Whiteside played 12 seasons in the NBA, was named to the All-Defensive Second Team, won one rebounding title and won two block titles.
And, in fact, Whiteside played 65 games with the Jazz in his final season in the NBA! Averages 82 points 76 rebounds 16 blocks, but this kind of data still can't get him a job in the NBA. The problem is also obvious, that is, his ball intelligence and defense, coupled with the fact that the center player is aged, can easily be eliminated by the NBA. At his peak, Whiteside was indeed quite eye-catching in the NBA, and his extremely violent blocking back then can be said to have attracted countless fans. Even now, his cap is really good to watch. Many times the block was made by pressing the ball down directly, and it was the kind of hat that was extremely morale-boosting.
The highlights of other players' careers are basically scores, stunners and other pictures, while Whiteside is basically all block highlights. At his peak, Whiteside averaged 17 points per game1 rebound 21 block, in the 2015-16 season there was also a single season 37 caps. It is worth mentioning that the highest average number of blocks per game in a single season in NBA history was set by Mark Eaton in the 1984-85 season56 times, a total of 456 blocks in a single season. Moreover, what is even more amazing about Whiteside is that his block count is the top among players of his time, but his defense is not the best among players of his period, which is also the reason why Whiteside was eliminated from the NBA as mentioned above.
Whiteside won the block title in 2016 and 2020, but was named to the Second Team only once in 2016 and the only Defensive Team of his career. And Mark Eaton, the most famous block king in the NBA, in addition to 4 block king honors in his career, also has 2 Best Defensive Player, 3 Best Defensive First Team, and 2 Best Defensive Second Team. With a slight comparison, Whiteside's problem comes out. In the 2014-15 season, after coming to the Heat, Whiteside entered his prime, but until the 2019-20 season, when he won the block king again, he did not have a single best defensive player during this period.
Therefore, even though the current NBA advocates offense, in the final analysis, defense is the basic game.