Tormented by injuries, the 35-year-old forward announced his retirement following a successful career
Anthony Randolph: Dealing winning pressure with Real Madrid, Slovenia as ‘second home’
Trademarks
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Everything changed for Anthony Randolph when the 2021-22 season was coming towards its conclusion. Since coming to Real Madrid, the Spanish League Finals against FC Barcelona had become a tradition, having played them twice already, in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 editions.
Game 1 was a good occasion to put the head in front against the Catalans and at the same time face a significant challenge against a superstar-caliber player like Nikola Mirotic. While confronting Barcelona's go-to guy, he twisted his knee. The Palau Blaugrana crowd showed lots of class by giving him an ovation as he hobbled off the court.
Tearing his ACL at almost 32 years of age meant cutting off a vast part of the journey toward his sunset basketball boulevard. Especially considering he was coming off a long-awaited recovery after injuring his Achilles heel in December 2020 against Olympiacos Piraeus. Back-to-back cruel setbacks.
"It knocked me off of my pedestal,” he told Eurohoops' Cesare Milanti after officially announcing his retirement from basketball. "I felt like I still had a lot left in the tank.
"I went from being a guy who could go out there and do whatever popped into his head without any problem, for the most part, all the way to seeing the plays happening but my body not reacting the way I wanted to react.” But basketball rewarded his resilience.
Only a few months after returning from his second consecutive tragic injury, he won the second EuroLeague title of his career, putting the cherry on top of his sixth-ever EuroLeague Final Four – only Kyle Hines, J.R. Holden, and Derrick Sharp have more Final Four appearances as Americans.
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