Magic; Bird; Jordan; Isiah all retired in consecutive seasons

[L.Kizzle]

Has their ever been a mass exodus in all of sports?
The four top superstars of the NBA in the previous decade. Imagine being a new basketball fan and watching the Dream Team in 1992 and 1/4 of the team is gone in just over a year?

1991 - Magic
1992 - Bird
1993 - Jordan
1994 - Isiah

I didn't start watching the NBA until 1994, all of them had gone by then.
I was coming in as a new fan but what were long lasting fans thinking of after those guys had departed and a new NBA was upon us.

[John8204]

Both Magic and Jordan came out of retirement but it's always kinda been that way you have years where guys will retire at the same time but generally it's spaced out.

1956 - Mikan
1964 - Schayes
1965 - Pettit
1969 - Russell
1970 - Cousy
1971 - Baylor
1073 - Chamberlain
1974 - Oscar
1977 - Thurmond
1978 - Havlicek
1979 - Frazier
1980 - Barry
1981 - Unseld
1984 - Hayes
1986 - Gervin
1987 - Erving
1988 - Walton
1989 - Kareem
1991 - Magic
1992 - Bird
1993 - Jordan
1994 - Isiah
1995 - Moses
2000 - Barkley
2002 - Olajuwon
2003 - Jordan
2004 - K Malone
2005 - Reggie Miller
2007 - Payton
2010 - Iverson
2011 - Shaq
2013 - Kidd
2015 - Nash
2016 - Kobe
2019 - Dirk

[JohnMax]

[GimmeThat]

we all find people that meet our expectation

[Da_Realist]

Magic shocked the world in November 1991 but the league still had MJ.
Bird's retirement was expected. We didn't want to see him lying on the floor anymore.
MJ's retirement shocked the world in October 1993 but this hurt the NBA more than Magic's retirement because MJ still had the torch. The league was still full of talent but it felt like something was missing. The league didn't have its headliner. The defending champs didn't have their best player.
Isiah Thomas' retirement was a blip on the screen. He had peaked years before and spent the previous few years not having much league impact while playing for a middling team with no championship aspirations. Then the injury knocked him out of quite a few games. The league had moved on and his retirement sort of flew under the radar.

[Soundwave]

This is basically why the "NBA forced Jordan to retire" thing is so stupid, the NBA would never, ever willingly agree to have Magic, Bird, and Jordan all retire within like 24 months especially with all three of them being relatively young still.

That's TV ratings and business suicide.

With Magic and Bird gone, Jordan would have to pull an OJ on live TV for it to rise to level of scandal that the NBA would even consider a suspension of any length ... gambling his own money on a golf course? Lol, no one really cared, not even the whitest house wife in the middle of middle America gave a fart about that.

[Axe]

This is basically why the "NBA forced Jordan to retire" thing is so stupid, the NBA would never, ever willingly agree to have Magic, Bird, and Jordan all retire within like 24 months.

That's TV ratings and business suicide. Jordan would have to pull an OJ on live TV to get suspended from the NBA ... gambling some of his own money ... lol, no one cares about that.

That also got his own dad killed in the process.

[Soundwave]

That also got his own dad killed in the process.

Also dumb and unfounded.

None of that stuff holds up if you look at it through any lens of business sense.

Michael Jordan would have to kill someone on live TV to get banned from the NBA, and even then like the NBA did what? Stage a baseball strike that would end just in time for the 1995 playoffs?

It's so stupid.

Charles Barkley gambled away millions of dollars, no one cares.

[Wally450]

When did D Wade officially retire? I know he had the Bulls/Cavs/back to the Heat stint. Can't remember when that was. Too lazy to look it up tbh.

[L.Kizzle]

When did D Wade officially retire? I know he had the Bulls/Cavs/back to the Heat stint. Can't remember when that was. Too lazy to look it up tbh.

Same year Dirk retired. I remember they stick them both in the All-Star team. Smh.