Bynum Considered Retirement, Unsure Of Future

Earlier today, we relayed a report out of Cleveland which revealed that Cavaliers center Andrew Bynum had considered retirement in the past and still thinks about it occasionally. Taking a closer look at the original piece from Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal, it appears that those thoughts stem from the frustration of not enjoying the game because he currently isn’t the player he once was:

“(Retirement) was a thought, it was a serious thought,..At the moment, it’s tough to enjoy the game because of how limited I am physically. I’m still sort of working through that…I’m a shell of myself on the court right now, I’m struggling mentally. I’m trying.”

Bynum, taken tenth overall by the Lakers during the 2005 NBA Draft, also revealed that there weren’t any discussions about re-signing with the 76ers this past summer after he had missed all of the 2012/13 season. Lloyd writes that this was the first instance in which Bynum had spoken about contemplating retirement, and adds that Cavs head coach Mike Brown hasn’t had any conversations with the 7’0 center on that subject. While Lloyd says it was difficult to determine just how serious Bynum was about his comments or if he’d just been having a bad day, it was clear that the one-time All-Star is mentally exhausted from having to deal with his physical limitations:

Battling pain is annoying…I’m not able to do the things I used to be able to do and it’s frustrating…I feel like I can still be a double-double guy in this league, but it’s just going to take some modifications to my game and whether or not I want to accept the challenge and do that.”

Through four of Cleveland’s first five games thus far, the New Jersey native is averaging 5.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 1.3 BPG in 12.8 MPG. He is currently signed to a partially-guaranteed contract with the Cavs through 2014/15.

View Comments (6)