pdated: June 23, 2005, 10:20 PM ET
Center to call it quits after 12 seasons
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Dallas Mavericks center Shawn Bradley has informed the team of his intention to retire and is negotiating a buyout of his contract.
Bradley and the Mavericks are close to finalizing a buyout arrangement. The 33-year-old has three seasons left on his contract at $14.5 million.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban said Thursday that Bradley started the discussions "because of injury concerns," primarily his knee and hip. A seldom-used reserve anyway, Bradley has averaged less than 12 minutes per game each of the last two seasons.
Bradley, a 12-year NBA veteran, and his wife Annette recently had their sixth child.
With Bradley possibly in need of additional surgery, Dallas is expected to forward his case to an independent doctor for review. If Bradley's injuries are determined to be career-ending, the balance of his contract would drop off the Dallas payroll after one season. If the injuries are not deemed career-ending, his contract remains on the Mavericks' cap.
Bradley was the No. 2 pick of the 1993 NBA draft by Philadelphia -->Chris Webber and Penny Hardaway -- after playing just one season at BYU and spending two years completing a Mormon mission in Australia.
Dallas was the third team that tried and failed to establish the slender Bradley as a franchise player. After two-plus seasons of unmet expectations with the 76ers and two partial seasons with New Jersey, Bradley joined the Mavericks in one of former coach-general manager Don Nelson's first major moves and spent the past 8Β½ seasons in Dallas.
Bradley's role, though, has gradually diminshed with the Mavs. After preseason knee surgery, Bradley averaged career lows in points per game (2.7) and blocks per game (0.8) in 2004-05 and appeared in just seven of Dallas' 13 playoff games under new coach Avery Johnson, for a total of 27 minutes.
Bradley will retire with career averages of 8.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.5 blocks, having led the league in blocked shots twice.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.
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