Abdur Rahim Named D League Coach

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

The Sacramento Kings have named Shareef Abdur-Rahim general manager of their NBA Developmental League (D-League) affiliate, the Reno Bighorns, the team announced in a press release. Abdur-Rahim played 12 seasons in the NBA, including three with the Kings from 2005 to 2008. Abdur-Rahim is entering his fourth season in the Kings front office, where he served the previous three as Assistant General Manager after spending the 2009-10 season on the Kings bench as an assistant coach specializing in player development.

Abdur-Rahim will keep his title as Director of Player Personnel with the Kings while also running the D-League team. This past July, the Kings were announced as the exclusive affiliate of the Bighorns. The Kings will be in charge of basketball operations, while local ownership in Reno will handle community and business operations.

Abdur-Rahim was a standout player in Atlanta, Georgia during his high school days. He left the deep south to go to University of California, Berkeley where he played for one year before entering the 1996 NBA Draft. He was the third overall selection in the 1996 draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies.

In 2001 he was traded by the Grizzlies in a draft-day deal to the Atlanta Hawks for the draft rights to Spanish forward Pau Gasol. Abdur-Rahim put up some good numbers for some bad Atlanta teams before joining the Portland Trail Blazers. He then went on to join his last team, the Sacramento Kings. Abdur-Rahim was named an NBA All-Star in the 2001–02 season. He also played on the United States men’s national basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Prior to joining the Kings, Abdur-Rahim had the dubious distinction of holding the NBA record for most number of games played without making a playoff appearance. Following an accumulation injuries, Abdur-Rahim retired from his playing career on September 22, 2008.

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