Who’ll Be The Last Active NBA Player That Was Drafted in the 90s?
For those with a keen eye on the good old days of basketball, it hasn’t been the best of times recently with the retirements of both Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. 2732 games and 39 years of NBA experience right there, vanishing over the horizon. Kobe Bryant, drafted in 1996 and Tim Duncan, drafted in 1997. It’s almost enough to signal the end of an era…
… but not quite. There are still a few current NBA fellas who were drafted before the nervous intake of breath that was Y2K. Chances are that at least a couple of them won’t be back for the 2016-17 season, though a few of them definitely will be – which begs the question: Who’ll be the last 90s veteran standing?
Okay, first thing to do is to take care of those that almost certainly won’t be around. The two initial names that are obliged to be mentioned are Ray Allen and Jermaine O’Neal. Allen took the last two seasons off but never technically retired and may possibly be open to a bench role spotting threes in 2016-17. He took a few offers during his down time but nothing that could sell him on returning, though at age 41 it sounds like he’s now backing himself for a comeback. If he does it’ll be a well-deserved ring-chasing exercise, so naturally the Cavaliers and the Warriors are the two teams in the rumour mills. Whether or not any of that can be believed, it’s hard to say. He did just open an organic fast food restaurant (called ‘Grown’) in Miami, for what that’s worth.
As for O’Neal, that bloke has been toying with a comeback for a while now since his last NBA appearance for the Golden State Warriors in 2014. He sat out the 2014-15 season citing exhaustion and declined a couple of feelers for his services during that time. In early 2015 he went through some private training to see if he was ready but didn’t think he was physically able to make a comeback midseason and turned down some very strong interest from the Dallas Mavericks – who pivoted by signing Amar’e Stoudemire to their bench, himself a 2002 draftee and recently retired. O’Neal tweeted this at the time:
But in February 2016 he reiterated the fact that he was not in retirement and still open to a comeback. Now 37 years old, he still backs himself to play in the NBA. At least those old familiar ‘sources’ say so:
Each of those two was drafted in 1996, O’Neal straight out of high school while Allen played a full college career. Neither would be the earliest remaining draft pick if they returned but that’s a fact to return to later. Before that, there are nine players drafted in either 1998 or 1999 that were still playing last season.
Elton Brand retired from basketball in 2015. Sometimes that doesn’t mean as much as you’d think, Brand was back in January 2016, reappearing in the NBA after a little convincing from Mike Krzyzewski of all people. He signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, writing a piece on SI’s Cauldron about how he wasn’t ready to give the game away yet. The two-time All Star played sparingly among that team of tankers (they were 3-33 when he joined them) and isn’t expected to be back again – unless it’s in a coaching role, that is.
Similarly, Nazr Mohammed found himself on the back end of the Oklahoma City roster last season having been out of things since playing only 23 times for the Bulls the year before. Mohammed only appeared in another five games for OKC but that wasn’t the point, he was a cheap veteran who wouldn’t need to play but would be an asset in the locker room and as a mentor. Pretty much a player-coach. Mohammed only started roughly 35% of his career games, the 29th overall pick in 1998 was never a star but he made a fine career for himself, picking up a ring with the Spurs in 2005. He’s also believed to have played his last game in the NBA.
Andre Miller, aka “The Professor”, has made a great late-career stand of being the veteran leader on younger teams with his roles on the Washington Wizards and Minnesota Timberwolves before taking a small role on the San Antonio Spurs after being waived by the Wolves. During that he made his first start in over two years, the notoriously durable Professor still able to step into a role when needed. This a man who has missed only a handful of games through injury his entire career. But as he said to Complex Mag recently: “I’m pretty much, probably 80, 90 percent sure I won’t play, but you never know. I might wake up saying “I wanna go play” because I enjoy and love the game.”
So don’t sweat on Miller being back either, the list of 90s players dwindling to a tally you can count on your fingers. Curiously, he was asked in that Complex interview about this exact topic:
“Speaking of those guys, you are now one of six active players left from the ‘90s. How does it feel to see guy you played with since the 90s hanging it up?
I can tell you first hand, all those guys are good people, and for me, kinda speaking for us, our dreams what was to try to make it to the NBA. Did we know it would happen? Probably not, but it was a dream and those guys are great guys. I’m just blessed to be able to share the experience with these great players and the best players, players that I look up to. It’s just a blessing because, who says things like “Your dreams can’t come true.” It’s been fun, I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve enjoyed the competition. And I guarantee you none of them don’t wanna stop. They wanna keep going, but they understand they’ve had the opportunity, and it’s the next generation up.”
That number of six isn’t strictly true, though it depends on your reading of the tea leaves. Allen, O’Neal, Brand, Miller and Mohammed are probably not coming back for another stint. Maybe they will, you never know, but most likely not. Allen’s the only one with a better than 10% chance, to be honest. Then we have a couple of players who are sitting on the fence. First of all, one of the most controversial players in NBA history.
Metta World Peace, once known as Ron Artest, disappeared to China and Italy for a while after his New York Knicks deal ended. Well, it didn’t so much end as it was cut short, waived and bought out seven months into a two year deal. Eventually he’d return for another run with the LA Lakers, a part of the squad that guided Kobe Bryant into his retirement. At his best, Artest was one of the finest defenders in the game. At age 36 he’s now a free agent and might be able to wrangle a veteran’s minimum deal before or during the season if he’s committed enough. He seems to be, as he’s reiterated a few times in 2016 that he’d like to play on anywhere between another two to four years. Time will tell if there’s a team out there for him. For now, he’s keeping himself busy with his new hip hop group, Queensbridge United.
Similar to Mr World Peace, Paul Pierce is a player at a crossroads in his career. The man known as The Truth went tenth in 1998 and is a 10-time All Star. After a bit of a resurgence as a closer in Washington, he teamed back up with his old Celtics coach Doc Rivers at the LA Clippers. Unfortunately that led to the worst season of his career, but that was only the first year of a three year contract and Pierce is reportedly leaning towards coming back for a nineteenth season. There are some mixed reports on that matter, some suggesting he’s still swaying – he himself said he was 50/50 in June when appearing on ESPN’s The Jump. A final decision is expected soon enough.
Doc Rivers appeared on Adam Wojnarowski's podcast recently and echoed a lot of these same things. He also said that if/when Pierce does decide to hang up the sneakers for good, he and the Clippers won’t stand in his way of retiring as a Boston Celtic. Lovely.
Another player in that same boat was Manu Ginobili. He’s played his entire NBA career with the San Antonio Spurs and although he contemplated retiring not only this off-season but the previous one as well, he chose to sign a one-year extension to stay where he’s been home for the last 14 years. The Spurs had to fight off some serious interest from the Philadelphia 76ers to get that one through.
Ginobili, though, is a bit of a sneaky exception on this list because although he was drafted in 1999 (with the 57th overall selection!), he didn’t actually make his NBA debut until the 2002-03 season. So, chuck an asterisk next to this guy, perhaps.
What Manu had going for him is that his team never wanted to lose him. He’s an icon there and with Tim Duncan retiring, although the Spurs would never try and influence a very personal decision, as long as he wanted to play they were going to do all they could to allow him to. But most older players don’t have that luxury by this time in their careers.
Jason Terry has played the last two seasons as a solid depth shooter for the Houston Rockets, where he’s been hailed as a crucial leader and influence. Jet is about to turn 39 in September and he has been told that the Rockets will not be re-signing him. However that doesn’t mean he’s planning on retiring.
Jason Terry: "Not retiring at all. Just looking for another opportunity to get back on a contender. But if that opportunity doesn't present itself, still being able to go in and have an impact in the locker room on the younger players and provide quality minutes off the bench. My body feels great. My mind is still sharp."
Terry was drafted in 1999 and while he never made an All Star team (like others on this list), he was the 2009 Sixth Man of the Year and an influential member of the Dallas Mavericks’ 2011 title team. He is third on the all-time list of three pointers made, one spot (and 41 threes) ahead of Paul Pierce, trailing Reggie Miller in second and the comfortable leader with 2973 of them: Ray Allen.
Sitting in sixth is a man by the name of Vince Carter. Some may know him better as Vinsanity. Drafted fifth in 1998, Carter was one of the most exciting and entertaining players in the sport during his time with the Toronto Raptors. He has made eight All Star appearances and in recent years, while the dunks don’t come out so often, he’s recreated himself as a valuable bench shooter. He did that over three years in Dallas, mostly, leading to a three year deal with the Memphis Grizzlies. Carter is about to enter that third year.
He hasn’t been nearly as effective in Memphis as he was in Dallas but last season saw an improvement in most places over the one before that. He will be back for 2016-17, that much is known. Well… they could waive him, to be fair. That seems unlikely for the 2016 Twyman-Stokes NBA Teammate of the Year, though. Carter himself would fancy one more season after this, to take him to 20 for his career.
Vince Carter: “I do. It’d be nice. I’m hoping so, but we’ll see. I don’t put the pressure on myself to do it. It’s just one of those goals you set. I take it year by year. If I don’t reach it, I’m OK with it. People say, ‘yeah, you can make it.’ And I say, yeah, right. It’s easy because you guys don’t have to wake up with my body every day.”
Dirk Nowitzki has a plan too. That plan is 20 seasons, each of them in Dallas. It’s been a weird few years for Dirk where he’s taken less money to try and help the Mavs go big in free agency and each time it seems to have failed with the team settling for second or third options. He opted out of his remaining year this free agency and the Golden State Warriors certainly didn’t hold back in talking of their interest in the German should they lose out on the Kevin Durant thing. That didn’t happen and Dirk agreed on two more years with the Mavericks – as was always the most likely thing. Only this time, they ramped up his salary as a reward for all the service, the 13-time All Star and former league and finals MVP set to equal Kobe Bryant at the conclusion of this contract as the only two men in history to play 20 years with the same franchise.
As far as total seasons go, Kobe Bryant’s 20 are equalled by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They are bettered by only three players: Kevin Willis, Robert Parish and Kevin Garnett. KG was drafted all the way back in 1995, picked straight out of high school where he made a pretty incredible immediate impact at the top level. There was superstardom with the Minnesota Timberwolves, followed by championship success with the Boston Celtics. An awkward whiff of a dream team in Brooklyn with the Nets came next, before a heart-warming return to the T-Wolves. Garnett is also a former MVP, as well as a 15-time All Star and the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year.
KG made the decision to keep playing last offseason, one of the most intense and driven characters the sport has ever seen embracing his mentor’s role among a very young and exciting roster. There is one more year on his contract should he choose to play it, and if he does his 22 seasons of NBA service will be unmatched in history. Not only is he the only player remaining from 1995, but he’s outlasted every 1996 and 1997 selection as well (although technically that won’t be true if Ray Allen comes back).
With that young team, Garnett’s salary isn’t in the way and his new coach (and old Boston buddy) Tom Thibodeau sounds happy to have him along. It’s all up to Garnett and whether he thinks his knees will hold up. When KG returned to Minnesota, it was said that he and coach Flip Saunders had spoken about going into part-ownership of the team once he finished playing. Since Sauders’ tragic passing last year, it’s unknown where that all stands now – though no player has made more salary money in their NBA career to date than Kevin Garnett.
So back to the question that began it all, who’ll be the last man standing?
Obviously the answer is Metta World Peace, if he gets his way. More realistically, Manu Ginobili could well play a further year after this one, as possibly could Jason Terry and Vince Carter. Kevin Garnett is almost certainly not going to be playing in 2017-18, while Paul Pierce is a chance but right now it’s an outside chance. If Ray Allen comes back, it’ll be for one year. The only player other than Pierce that has it in their own hands to play two more seasons is Dirk Nowitzki. In fact with the way he’s been going and the style of game that he has, he could probably go another year after that, though he’s always suggested that 20 years would be enough for him. As far as on-court performance goes, Dirk is comfortably ahead of the rest of the 90s lads – he still starts and everything. He’s the only one of these players who you can lock in two more seasons of.
Will any of the others manage to cling on with him? It’s unlikely, to be honest. Within three years the NBA’s 1990s contingent will be entirely gone, like grains of sand carried away by waves on the shore, gone from our sights with the passage of time. But hey, we’ll always have the memories and luckily those memories are well enshrined in grainy video footage for future generations to marvel upon. These must be some vibrant times for any throwback hoops channels on YouTube.