On this date in 1992, Larry Bird announced his retirement from the NBA after 13 incredible seasons. Larry Legend went out on the highest note possible after he and the Dream Team captured the gold medal in Barcelona, Spain. The forward played with toughness and grit until the very end of his NBA career but was severely hampered by back issues in his later years and, clearly, had nothing left to prove. The Hall of Famer finished his career with 24.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, and 6.3 APG with 49.6% shooting from the floor. Bird also accumulated more accolades than the space in this post will allow: three NBA titles, three MVP awards, two Finals MVP awards, twelve All-Star nominations, and much, much more.
If you have a great blog piece that you think we should feature in Hoops Links, then send it to me at HoopsLinks@gmail.com. Here's this week's look around the blogosphere..
- Hardwood Paroxysm isn't all that high on the Knicks' offseason.
- Nets Are Scorching celebrates Joe Johnson week.
- Red94 tackles the Kevin Martin dilemma.
- SecretRival has an updated list of summer league players that have hooked on overseas.
- Basketball Prospectus ranks the recruiting classes of the last ten years.
- Wages Of Wins has compiled projections for every team, as built, for the next five seasons.
- Raptors Republic liked the play of Jonas Valanciunas in London.
- Bucksketball didn't see Carlos Delfino as a great fit for the Rockets.
- Hoops Addict makes the case for Ante Tomic.
- Bright Side Of The Sun recaps Jared Dudley's summer on Twitter.
- Swish Appeal breaks down the women's team phenomenal defense against France.
- Truth About It believes that Nene Hilario's play in the Olympics will change how he's used this year.
- NBA 24 7 365 doesn't like the Dwight Howard trade for the Magic.
- The Basketball Post looks at potential lottery pick Alec Brown.
- Pounding The Rock isn't so sure that the Howard deal will work out for the Lakers.
- The NBA Geek dispels the fallacy of small ball.
- Buckets Over Broadway marvels at the spending in the Atlantic Division.
- RealGM says that the Bulls never really had a chance with D12.
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