Players who Retired too Early Due to Various Reasons- Yao Tribute

          So since one of the top news stories of the day was Houston Rockets Center Yao Ming announcing his retirement from the NBA, I figured I would focus on a handful of players who retired too early because of a health issue from major sports. Yao as we know was a behemoth 7 foot 6 inches tall and was in the league for 9 seasons after he was the number 1 overall pick of the Rockets in 2002. He played only two complete seasons in his first two years in the league. He finishes his career with 19.0 points per game,  9.2 rebounds per game and 1.9 blocks per game in 486 career games. Yao faced numerous leg, ankle and foot injuries over the years and just could not overcome them, we wish him well in all his future endeavors. 

Yao Ming (yao-ming.tripod.com)

NBA Players who retired too soon: As we were saying Yao certainly is on this list but who else deserves to be on it?

Larry Bird (totalfoot3.com)

-Larry Bird: Bird retired in 1992 after 13 seasons in the NBA. He had major back injuries that forced him to have numerous surgeries on it but they never fully helped and forced him into a somewhat early retirement. I would say if his back hadn't failed him, he would have lasted 4-5 more seasons. Bird averaged 24.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg and 6.3 apg in 897 career games

Earvin "Magic" Johnson (johnjohnsaidit.com)

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-Magic Johnson: Magic is an interesting part of this argument. He retired in 1991 after 12 seasons in the league due to testing positive for the HIV virus. This brought up questions about his sexuality and many people avoided him completely believing HIV was contagious like the common cold. Magic did make a comeback in 1996 but it was more of a big name on the team case than still a viable superstar returning. Had Magic not contracted the virus he would have lasted at least 5-6 more seasons.

 Latrell Sprewell (briancuban.com)

Bill Walton (sportige.com)

-The fall-off after those two is pretty big, you could make a case for Bill Walton since he had so many feet issues that derailed his whole career, Allen Iverson could be mentioned since he just had too big of an ego to be a great sixth man for a team and Latrell Sprewell could also be on the list since he left with many years left on his legs but his insanity got the best of him.

NFL certainly has a few players that could be considered on the list.

Barry Sanders (blogs.woodtv.com)

-No one deserves to be on this list more than Barry Sanders. Sanders just walked away from the game after 10 phenomenal seasons, making the all-star game in all 10 of those seasons. No one really knows why he retired so early, he had at least 4-5 more seasons left in him but many speculations are that he wanted to be traded to a contender and was not appreciated.

Jim Brown (jimbrownbiography.com)

-Jim Brown deserves to be on the list since he only played 9 seasons in a shorter seasoned NFL. Had he stuck around he would have broken more records than he did already and in those 9 seasons he never missed a game.

Robert Smith (sports.espn.go.com)

-Great example of leaving too early... Robert Smith, RB for the Minnesota Vikings who retired at age 28 after 8 excellent seasons to pursue a career in medicine and to avoid any major injuries.

MLB players are much more replaceable than the other two sports but here are a few that retired too soon.

Sandy Koufax (launiusr.wordpress.com)

-Sandy Koufax is the best example, he is the ultimate early retire. He walked away from the game at age 30, when he had already tallied up 165 wins, 2396 strikeouts, and a 2.76 ERA. He was suffering from arthritis but still could have lasted a few more seasons to really pad those impressive stats.

Ralph Kiner (sportsblink.com)

-Ralph Kiner who retired only at age 32 and was still going strong is a good example, as is Kirby Puckett who had to retire due to blindness in one eye.

Ken Griffey Jr. (thetruthsports.com)

-The most debatable player that could be on this list is Ken Griffey Jr. He was unbelievable until numerous injuries derailed his career for good. He kept trying to come back so it tarnished his career a bit but had Griffey not been injury-prone he could have been one of the best players to ever play the game.

Biggest Winner of the Night and Biggest Loser of the Night go to the same game today. Derek Holland, starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers was lights out against the visiting Oakland A's last night throwing a complete game shut out allowing just 4 hits, 2 walks while striking out 7 in the 6-0 win. But tragedy struck in the 2nd inning when a fan caught a ball tossed to him by All-Star center fielder Josh Hamilton but lost his balance and fell 20 feet onto concrete and later passed away in a local hospital from head injuries. The man was a firefighter and was at the game with his young son, an absolute tragedy. We all feel terrible for the entire family of the deceased as well as Josh Hamilton who I'm sure is having a tough time dealing with what happened.