After 15 Seasons David West Is Calling It A Career
Retirement seems to be in the air these days in the NBA world. We had Manu last week and now David West today, and honestly I’m not sure anyone could blame either for hanging up their sneakers. While he may not have been as integral to the Warriors championships like Manu was for the Spurs, at least West was able to experience winning a ring not once, but twice. I know people tend to hate on players that ring chase and especially the ones that join the Warriors, but I feel like we never got that with David West. In the later stages of his career West took massive pay cuts in order to join a contender in hopes of finally winning a title. He took an $11M hit to join the Spurs back in 2015 (lost in the 2nd round), and was playing on a veteran minimum salary while in GS. I think more than anything the NBA world was just happy to see him win, and I have no problem with what he did.
A two time All Star, I wouldn’t say West is a HOF talent or anything like that, but he was really fucking good back in the early 2000s on those New Orleans teams. I always remember ending up with him on my fantasy basketball team back then and you could pencil him in for like 20/9 every single night. There are a lot of fake tough guys in the NBA, but David West was absolutely not one of them. He was an actual tough guy that you in no way ever wanted to mess with. He just looks mean ya know? There’s a part of me that should always sneaky hate West for that time he was supposed to sign with the Celtics but instead chose IND at the last second where he played 4 seasons, but I don’t. That worked out for everyone in my opinion so no harm no foul.
What stands out when looking back on West’s career is probably how great he was in the midrange area, and the fact that he almost never missed time even as he got older. From ages 33-37 he played in 80, 66, 78, 68, and 73 games. Now once he joined SAS and GS he saw his minutes cut in half to around 13-18 a night, but honestly by that point anything he gave you was an added bonus. I will say, now that he is for sure retired, he needs to tell the world what the hell he was talking about after the Warriors most recent title where he said apparently they went through some shit. Spill the fucking beans David, we’re all waiting.
So congratulations to David West on an awesome NBA career, and while the Warriors won’t even notice you aren’t around, you were definitely one of the better players of the 2000s, and I’ll always remember the load you carried to my fantasy basketball title back in high school.
Enjoy retirement.