Bad teams, bigger stars overshadowed Elton Brand's excellence

Elton Brand, a 17-year NBA veteran who amassed more than 16,000 points and 9,000 rebounds, officially retired Thursday to tepid fanfare, so here's a quick reminder of just how good the Duke product was for almost a decade to begin his career:

After two successful seasons at Duke, which included a Naismith College Player of the Year award in 1999, Brand declared for the NBA draft and was selected No. 1 overall by the Chicago Bulls.

He was the prize for Chicago's futile first season in a Post-Jordan world, and looked ready to carry the franchise into a new era. As a 20-year-old rookie, he averaged 20.1 points, 10.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.6 blocks, en route to a share (with Steve Francis) of the Rookie of the Year award.

The only other players in recorded history to average at least 20, 10, one, and one before the age of 21 are Shaquille O'Neal and Anthony Davis.

Brand took the NBA by storm, but he was far from a one-hit wonder. Over the first eight years of his career, the big man averaged 20.3 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.1 blocks on 50.5 percent shooting, while suiting up for an average of more than 75 games per season.

Since Brand entered the Association, Shaq, Davis, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Yao Ming, and Jermaine O'Neal are the only players to even average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, and two assists in a single season. Brand did it over an eight-year span.

During that time, most of which was spent with the Los Angeles Clippers after a 2001 draft day trade for Tyson Chandler, Brand posted a player efficiency rating of 22.7, earned two All-Star selections during an era when Hall of Fame big men dominated the Western Conference, and was an All-NBA second team member in 2006.

He even had a top-10 finish (seventh place) in the 2006 MVP voting after a career year that saw him average nearly 25 points per game.

So why don't fans recall Brand's dominant near-decade of ball the way they do other stars of his era? For one, despite sustaining his career for 17 years, injuries took their toll on his durability, and he missed 270 games over his final nine seasons. That kind of perennial inaction has a way of slowly eroding what fans remember about a player's best days.

Secondly, his peak occurred during somewhat of a downtime in NBA interest, muddled between the fall of His Airness and the rise of King James. To those who were paying attention in the early 2000s, he was buried behind living legends like Shaq, Duncan, KG, Dirk, and Kobe.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, in an era just before hoops heads began paying attention to players' on-court values beyond wins and losses, he spent the prime of his outstanding career toiling away on some atrocious, inconsequential teams.

During the impressive stretch to open his career, Brand made the postseason only once in eight years - he made the playoffs only six times total in 17 years - and his teams won 30-plus games only four times in eight seasons. Extend the sample to his career at large and the results are even more depressing, as in the 13 seasons he logged at least 1,000 minutes, his teams averaged just under 34 wins per year.

It all adds up to a career that was both sparkling and forgettable.

Brand never carved out the career-long legacy of other recently retired stars like Bryant, Garnett, or Duncan, and he clearly didn't enjoy anywhere near the same type of success at the team level.

Not everyone can be a Hall of Famer, but of the few who hit the genetic jackpot to become NBA-caliber athletes, Brand was among the best for nearly a decade. For at least one day, as his otherwise nondescript chapter in NBA history comes to an end, let's remember that.