Free agent center Nazr Mohammed doesn’t want to sign an NBA contract for now, and while he’s not ruling out a return in a few months, he would be OK with never playing again, as he writes in his personal blog (hat tip to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune). The 38-year-old veteran of 17 NBA seasons has spent the past three years with the Bulls, his hometown team, and he had plenty of praise for the Bulls organization even though he made it clear that he wished he’d seen more playing time on the team.
“Truth is, I still love this game, I still have that competitor in me and I still feel like I can help a team. And regardless of what happens, I plan on staying in basketball shape,” Mohammed wrote, in part. “But at this moment, I am comfortable and confident saying that I’m cool with it being over. I am really at peace. I realize how big of an accomplishment it is to have played as long as I’ve played. It’s an unbelievable feat. I’m cool with not playing ever again and choosing which path to take at this fork in the road that leads me away from my first love.”
The Mike Higgins client said that he would only sign with a team that planned a legitimate on-court role for him and didn’t want him merely as a locker room mentor. He also suggested that he’d like to join a team in a front office capacity.
Mohammed spent his time with the Bulls on a series of minimum salary contracts, and it didn’t appear as though he’d drawn much interest this past summer, in contrast to 2014, when he reportedly worked out with the Heat before re-signing with Chicago. He also reportedly expressed interest last year in rejoining the Spurs, with whom he won his NBA championship in 2005, but the feeling apparently wasn’t mutual.
The 6’10” center only started more than half his team’s regular season games twice during his NBA career, with the Spurs in 2004/05 and the Hawks in 2001/02. Mohammed averaged 5.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in 15.9 minutes per contest across precisely 1,000 games in the league. He entered the NBA coming off an NCAA championship at Kentucky as the 29th overall pick in 1998, and he made more than $65.162MM in NBA salaries, according to Basketball-Reference.
What will be your most enduring memory of Mohammed if this is indeed the end of his career? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Pushing LeBron across the court.
Jog my memory; when did he do that?
link to youtu.be
Oh yeah, that was quite a shove!