35-year old PF/C Rasheed Wallace has retired from the NBA. He played in 79 games (13 starts) last season for the Celtics and he averaged 22.5 minutes, 9.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.0 steal per game. Wallace finished up his NBA career playing in 1,088 games (956 starts) in which he averaged 33.0 minutes, 14.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.0 steal and 1.3 blocked shots per game. Despite the fact that Wallace was a solid player I think his numbers fall short of the Basketball Hall of Fame. He finishes his NBA career #55 all-time in games played (1,088), #72 in rebounds (7,231), #110 in steals (1,077), #33 in blocked shots (1,445), #91 in points scored (15,860), #51 in three pointers made (1,064) and he was #42 in NBA history in personal fouls (3,219). Wallace usually played better when the games were big ones but I think I would put him in the Hall of Good instead of the Hall of Fame.

Lefty swinging 1B/OF Sam Crawford has a record that will likely never be broken and it has stood since 1917.  Crawford is the all-time leader in triples in major league history with a stunning 309!  Crawford played 19 years in the major leagues (1899-1917) in which he played in 2,517 games.  In those games, Crawford was 2,961 of 9,570 (.309 avg, .814 OPS) with 1,391 runs scored, 97 homers, 1,525 RBIs and 367 stolen bases.  Despite those numbers Crawford still had to wait until 1957 to get into Baseball’s Hall of Fame by way of the Veteran’s Committee.  Crawford never won an MVP Award but he finished 2nd in 1914.  In 1914, Crawford played in 157 games in which he was 183 of 582 (.314 avg, .871 OPS) with 74 runs scored, 26 triples, 8 homers, 104 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.  Carl Crawford is the active major league leader in triples and he has 98.  I just don’t see him playing long enough to come anywhere near Sam Crawford whose record of 309 might never be broken.

A quick look at 43-year old switch hitting shortstop Omar Vizquel’s career numbers probably have him missing the Hall of Fame.  Vizquel has played in 2,775 games in his major league career so far (he’s still an active player with the Chicago White Sox) and he is 2,732 of 10,030 (.272 avg, .692 OPS) with 1,393 runs scored, 79 homers, 920 RBIs and 391 stolen bases.  Those are pretty solid numbers for a shortstop but Vizquel made his biggest mark with the mitt on his hands.  He has won 11 Gold Gloves in his career and he has made 3 All Star teams.  With all do respect to Ozzie Smith, Vizquel is the best defensive shortstop that I have ever seen!  With that in mind I decided to take a peek at Ozzie Smith’s career stats seeing how he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.  Smith played in 2,573 games in his major league career and he was 2,460 of 9,396 (.262 avg, .666 OPS) with 1,257 runs scored, 28 homers, 793 RBIs and 580 stolen bases.  So stolen bases where his only advantage over Vizquel offensively.  Ozzie Smith won 13 Gold Gloves in his major league career and he made 15 All-Star Games.  A closer look as Smith’s All-Star appearances had way more to do with his popularity than his talent.  In 1995, for instance, Smith played in 44 games in which he was 31 of 156 (.199 avg, .526 OPS) with 16 runs scored, 0 homers, 11 RBIs and 4 stolen bases!  In Smith’s last three All-Star games he played in 224 regular season games in which he was 195 of 764 (.255 avg) with 113 runs scored, 5 homers, 59 RBIs and 17 stolen bases.  With all of the evidence I have seen with my own two eyes and in the stats in this article I think Vizquel should be in Cooperstown someday.  The only thing hurting Vizquel’s chances is that I don’t think he was ever as popular as Ozzie Smith was.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets and Charlotte Bobcats didn’t have a pick in last night’s draft.  I’m pretty sure they all tried to buy or trade there way in but it didn’t work.  In the Cavaliers’ defense they traded both of those picks last season in trades that brought in Antwan Jamison and Shaquille O’Neal.  The reason for the “F” though is because none of these teams added any talent yesterday and the NBA Draft is the only way to add cheap help.

These four teams have gotten a “D” from me for their draft grade.  Not one of these teams is better today than it was yesterday and here is why:

CHICAGO BULLS:  The Bulls traded away their first round pick so that they wouldn’t have to pay one.  They also ridded themselves of Kirk Hinrich’s contract to open up more cap space for next weekend.  But, they should have done it like the Heat did as they found themselves some potentially nice players in the second round.

ORLANDO MAGIC:  The Magic looked like they weren’t even interested in the draft last night.  They picked center Daniel Orton who was a backup at Kentucky in the first round.  In the second round they took forward Stanley Robinson who will also likely be nailed to the bench.

ATLANTA HAWKS:  The Hawks drafted small forward Damion James and that was viewed as a very nice pick.  Then the Atlanta Hawks traded James to the Nets for the #27 and #31 picks.  The Hawks then took SG Jordan Crawford out of Xavier which likely means the Hawks are preparing for Joe Johnson to leave as a free agent.  The Nets then sold the #31 pick to the Thunder for cash.  Overall, a very disappointing night for the Hawks.

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER:  The Thunder came into this draft in really good shape as they were armed with a lot of picks.  But it didn’t likely turn out the way they wanted it to.  The Thunder traded all of their original picks away and they got centers Cole Aldrich and Tibor Pleiss (Germany) along with forward Ryan Reid.  The Thunder also picked up veterans Daequan Cook and Morris Peterson which may or may not help the team.  The Thunder also got a future first round pick from the Clippers in exchange for rookie PG Eric Bledsoe.