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It was recently announced by LaMarcus himself that he will be retiring due to heart conditions.
ESPN also announced it earlier this morning.
This season, the former Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs star player joined the Brooklyn Nets. It had probably given him the best chance to end his career a championship. If the Nets do go on to win the NBA Finals this season, Aldridge will still get a ring because he had played in a few games as a net this season.
The 15-year veteran was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the 2006 NBA Draft, with the number 2 overall pick. That pick was traded to the Blazers, where Aldridge started his career. He had gotten the chance to play on some really good teams while with Portland, but none of them were able to bring in a championship. Throughout, the last couple years that Aldridge was with the Blazers, you could tell that the team had seemed to be leaning on Damian Lillard to be their new franchise player.
Should the Trail Blazers retire LA’s number?
The Portland Trail Blazers have the most retired jerseys in the NBA. They have retired a total of 12 jerseys (1, 13, 14, 15, 20, 22, 30, 30, 32, 36, 45, and 77). That included pretty much every player on the 1977 championship team of the Blazers. LA wore the number 12, which is a pretty common number. However he was the best player to don the number.
Throughout his career Aldridge rose up the ranks of the All-Time records for Portland. He’s currently sitting at 5th for games played (648), 4th for minutes played, 3rd in field goals, 4th in free-throws, 1st in total rebounds (5434), 1st in defensive rebounds (3698), 3rd in offensive rebounds (1736), 4th in blocks (658) and most importantly 3rd in points in franchise history (12526). He carried the Blazers out of one the darkest times in franchise history and carried them into the Dame era.
You could make a case for either side. But, in the end I’m not quite sure the Blazers will retire the number of Lamarcus Aldridge. However, they could do what they did for Jerome Kersey years ago, and Paul Allen in 2019. They could add a patch to their uniforms to honor the Aldridge. They could also have a spotlight of LA12 outside the Moda Center.
Even if they don’t do the patch and spotlight, Aldridge has been one of the best players to ever wear a Blazers uniform. Therefore he should be in the Portland Trail Blazers Hall of Fame.
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Northwest Sports Desk 