He had the handles and he had the shot.
He was quick and one of the best free-throw shooters in NBA History.
But he lost his career because of his beliefs.
Chris Wayne Jackson was a 6.1 point guard who was the 3rd pick of the 1990 NBA draft.
A star in Louisiana State University and was meant to be a star in the NBA.
Until he was blackballed by the league.
Hello guys, I’m PRPLPRNCH and I want to talk about a player who lost his NBA career
because he didn’t stand up for the national anthem.
Jackson’s career was up to a really good start.
In fact, after coming off the bench for the first 2 seasons of his career, he then started
for the team that chose him in the draft - the Denver Nuggets.
As a starter He was very solid, averaging close to 20 ppg, 5 assists, while shooting
36% from the 3pt line.
All problems started when Chris Wayne Jackson decided to convert to Islam and become a muslim.
Now known as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, he decided to not stand during the national anthem because
he thought it is against muslim beliefs and “he felt the flag stood for tyranny and
oppression and he didn’t want to stand for something he didn’t believe in”.
After announcing his stance,Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf received a lot of death threats and hate mail
and he was suspended for one game because of his beliefs.
After that Abdul-Rauf and the league made a compromise, forcing him to stand for the
anthem, but allowing him to close his eyes and look downwards.
The damage was done though.
Not long after he lost his spot as Denver NUggets starting point guard.
Even though he was the leading scorer, averaging 19.2 points and 6.8 assists.
And at the end of the season he was traded to the Sacramento Kings.
You know, the place where all careers die.
His first year in Sacramento Abdul Rauf played less than he was in Denver, wasn’t starting
some games, but in his second year he played just 31 games and started none of them.
After the year, his contract was up and he couldn’t even get a tryout with NBA team.
At just 29 years old and after proving himself as a really good player, he couldn’t even
get a tryout with an NBA team at the prime of his career.
Sounds very fishy doesn’t it?
In an interview after Colin Kaepernick did the same thing in the NFL - not standing up
for the anthem -. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf said:
It’s a process of just trying to weed you out.
This is what I feel is going to happen to [Kaepernick].
They begin to try to put you in vulnerable positions.
They play with your minutes, trying to mess up your rhythm.
Then they sit you more.
Then what it looks like is, well, the guy just doesn’t have it anymore, so we trade
him.
It’s kind of like a setup, you know, trying to set you up to fail and so when they get
rid of you, they can blame it on that as opposed to, it was really because he took these positions.
They don’t want these type of examples to spread, so they’ve got to make an example
of individuals like this.
After not receiving any offers from NBA Mahmoud Abdul Rauf continued his career in Turkey.
He played in Turkey for a year, missed a season and then returned to the NBA for 41 games
as a bench player averaging 12 minutes per game.
He played for the 2000-2001 Vancouver Grizzlies - the worst franchise in NBA History in my
opinion.
After that, he never got another opportunity in the NBA.
He ended up playing only 586 games in the NBA averaging 14.5 points and 3.5 assists
as well as hitting 90.5 percent of his free throws.
The numbers could have been so much better though if the prime of his career wouldn’t
be ruined because of his stance against the anthem.
He continued his career in Russia, Italy, Greece, Saudi Arabia and Japan and eventually
retired in 2011.
It’s crazy to see how his career went south so quick after just one moment, not standing
up for one anthem and then just having his career to end because of that.
In a lot of sports analysts eyes, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf was a player Steph Curry and Kyrie
Irving are now.
Quick release, great shooting ability and great handles.
We can only imagine what would have happened if he would just stand for the anthem or if
the league wouldn’t blackball one of the best point guards of the 90s, at least for
a couple of years.
I think Mahmoud Abdul Rauf is one of the unfairly forgotten players because of his short career.
His legacy as a human being though goes beyond the game of basketball.
He was one of the first athletes to raise an issue.
He paid for it with his career.
He did drop 32 on Michael Jordan and gave him a one loss in his legendary 72-10 season.
And that’s a great accomplishment.
Even if there could have been so much more.
In various interviews since his NBA days he has acknowledged that his best years were
taken away from him and it does look that it was a bit unfair.
However he also isn’t sorry for what he did, even if it did lose him millions.
He standed for what he believed in and there is no shame in that.
Mahmoud Abdul Rauf is still very close to basketball.
Like so many other retired former NBA players he is playing in the BIG 3 league for the
3 headed monsters team where last season they made it all the way to the championship game
in a losing effort against Trilogy.
Mahmoud Abdul Rauf scored 22 points that game but that wasn’t enough.
What do you think guys?
Was Mahmoud Abdul Rauf blackballed by the league?
Why?
How good could he have been if he wouldn’t have lost his career like that.
Leave a comment below, like this video and subscribe for future NBA content.
Thanks for watching.
I’m PRPLPRNCH and I’m out.