Veteran center Hassan Whiteside has informed Piratas de Quebradillas – his team last season in Puerto Rico – that he intends to retire from basketball, according to a report from the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia.
Although Whiteside hasn’t made an official, public announcement himself, he did re-post several social media stories about his reported retirement on his Instagram account.
Whiteside, 34, was the 33rd overall pick out of Marshall in the 2010 draft and spent his first two professional seasons playing in Sacramento. However, he saw limited minutes in just total 19 appearances for the Kings and subsequently played in the G League, China, and Lebanon from 2012-14 before catching on with the Heat.
The best stretch of Whiteside’s NBA career came in Miami from 2014-19, as he averaged 14.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks across 324 appearances (259 starts) in 27.2 minutes per night. He made the All-Defensive Second Team and led the NBA in blocked shots in 2015/16, then was the league’s top rebounder in ’16/17.
Whiteside was traded from the Heat to the Trail Blazers entering the final season of a four-year, $98MM+ contract in 2019 and once again led the NBA in blocked shots in his first and only season in Portland. He was a backup center with the Kings in 2020/21 and the Jazz in ’21/22 before playing in Puerto Rico in 2023.
For his career, Whiteside averaged 12.6 PPG, 10.8 RPG, and 2.2 BPG in 511 NBA regular season games (24.7 MPG). Despite his gaudy stats, the big man sometimes faced criticism due to the perception that he pursued individual numbers over team success and that his effort fluctuated on the defensive end of the court.
According to El Nuevo Dia, Whiteside will be replaced on Piratas de Quebradillas’ roster this season by another former NBA player: 7’6″ center Tacko Fall.
No player in the NBA is more qualified to be a defensive force than a Center. Where size truly matters. Unfortunately defense doesn’t get the attention offense does. So big men don’t always embrace the rim protector, defensive anchor role on a team.
Mitch Robinson is a prime example of that today. He and Thibs have bumped heads over it. And Mitch has sulked his way thru it. But when he plays and embraces the role. Knicks are hard to beat, especially now with this group.
Hassan should have been a top three DPOY for his career. Had that kind of skill. Shot blocker, rebounder, patrolled the paint. That you can build a top D team around.
Defense doesn’t get headlines or big contracts. In a 2way sport it can be the difference between winning and losing.
It didn’t work with Gobert and the jazz though. He got exposed in the playoffs time and time again. He got paid and didn’t even bother to expand his game, or even hit mid range jumpers like KG could. Mitch wants to get more touches but like Gobert, he got paid then didn’t learn to hit jumpshots.
I agree that goberts lack of an offensive bag has held back his game to an extent, but the whole narrative of gobert getting exposed in the playoffs is bs. Especially in that clippers series for instance, the jazz basically surrounded gobert w 4 average to poor defenders and asked him to cover for them. No way that he can protect the rim and the 3pt line at same time. We are seeing a dif situation in Minnesota , where the actual effort of other defenders has benefitted gobert in the playoffs.
In Minny they have a well balanced team and of course Ant is him. KAT is better as the second option so it works.
Waste of special talent tbh
Dude got paid and became complacent…
Yeah there’s truth to that.
He was real good, deserved a better chance & to retire on his terms and in the NBA!