Shareef Abdour-Rahim

Shareef Abdur-Rahim had a hand in grooming incoming NBA rookie Dyson Daniels, and if the kid ends up becoming Rookie of the Year or Defensive Player of the Year, he will have the 45-year-old G League president to thank. Of all the accomplishments in Abdur-Rahim’s life, including an Olympic gold medal, a Master's degree and two Mr. Georgia basketball awards, we will have to wait and see whether his tutelage of the 19-year-old Australian results in the NBA having its next superstar from Down Under.

“He came over here and joined G League Ignite without his mom and dad around to help him acclimate, and what I have seen is a huge improvement in his defense. There are times you know you helped somebody reach their goals. He has toughness and resiliency, and his perimeter defense exceeds his offensive ability, which was already very good.”

Abdur-Rahim entered the NBA as the No. 3 overall pick by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1996 NBA Draft. He had the misfortune of playing in Vancouver, where his talent and skill were often overlooked by a mainstream American audience that was not tuning in to late-night games played in British Columbia.

He played 718 regular-season games without ever appearing in the postseason. Abdur-Rahim finally broke through with the Sacramento Kings in 2006 after five seasons with the Grizzlies, three with the Atlanta Hawks and two with the Portland Trail Blazers. At the time, it was the longest streak by an NBA player of not having appeared in a single playoff game.

But good things come to those who wait. The Sacramento front office, led by Geoff Petrie at the time, took an acute liking to their esteemed and well-educated veteran who was on his second stint passing through Northern California. The first came after high school when he was recruited by Todd Bozeman and eventually left Marietta, Georgia, to attend Cal-Berkeley. At one of the top universities in America, Abdur-Rahim maintained a 3.5 grade-point average before leaving after one year to enter the NBA draft.

“After my playing career, I had never thought about coaching, but my wife said I might as well because I was not ready to retire and needed something to do,” Abdur-Rahim said, relating the experience every NBA player goes through when faced with the decision of what to do once his playing career has ended. “So I did that for two years, and it gave me the opportunity to think about what to do next.

“I took a summer during the 2011 lockout to finish school, and from there, Geoff named me to the front office where I got to see another side of the business. I eventually applied to business school (Southern Cal’s Marshall School of Business), and I got in. And after I finished and stopped working for the Kings, it broke that routine and really helped me understand the business better and to take a pause and look at what I wanted to do.”

The internship at the NBA came next as Abdur- Rahim reconnected with many of the players and executives he had gotten to know over the years — Isiah Thomas and Steve Smith were among his mentors. He soaked up the knowledge from presentations at the league office and figured out how to harness the interests of newly retired players. He helped them latch onto opportunities and transition to life after basketball.

Abdur-Rahim’s path has led him to his present passion, which helps teach life lessons to G League Ignite players who are mostly 18 years old and just beginning their professional journeys.

Daniels is one of them, and we will all have to wait until the start of the 2022-23 season to see whether Abdur-Rahim’s scouting report on the kid’s defensive prowess translates into tangible accomplishments in the NBA. If he is correct, it may be Daniels rather than Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga or Isaiah Todd who becomes the most successful prospect to come out of that feeder program.

Cal-Berkeley is not for everyone, but it was for Abdur-Rahim, and he is putting that knowledge to use with a whole new generation of future NBA players.