I promise that my initial intention in setting out to do some research for this post was to cast a little doubt on the widespread-on-ESPN.com assumption that Ray Allen’s career is about to head off a cliff. That led me to Basketball-Reference.com which judges Allen’s career thus far to be substantially more similar to Mitch Richmond’s than to anyone else.
Unfortunately, between the 97–98 season (when he was 32) and the 98–99 season (when he was 33), Richmond experienced a sudden and dramatic decline in playing ability, transforming overnight from a star-quality player to a decided state of averageness.
Photo by Flickr user Skidrd used under a Creative Commons license
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