Abdur-Rahim tries sidelines footwork

Growing up in Marietta, they called Shareef Abdur-Rahim “The Future.”

Having the kind of skills to wind up the third overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft tended to simplify what was coming. But over the past few months, for the first time in his life, Abdur-Rahim’s future wasn’t so clear anymore.

An arthritic right knee forced him to retire after 12 seasons in the NBA last month. At age 31, he was faced with figuring out something else to do.

“My body just wasn’t going to let me do it anymore,” said Abdur-Rahim, who played only six games last season for Sacramento and never saw improvement despite two surgeries in six months. “I guess that’s a good thing and a bad thing because otherwise I don’t know how I would determine when to retire.”

The Kings made it a lot easier on him. As he mulled retirement, they offered him a chance to stay in the organization.

Within 10 days of his retirement announcement, Abdur-Rahim was introduced as the newest member of Reggie Theus’ coaching staff.

“For athletes, it’s death, taxes and retirement,” said Theus, who rekindled an idea the Kings had last season to hire a big man coach. “There’s no way around it. Fortunately, Shareef will have a chance to wind his career down slowly and still be involved.

“What you miss most about playing after years go by is camaraderie and the competition. In coaching you get to compete but in a more cerebral way. And the camaraderie is there, not only with players, but the coaching staff is a new family.”

Abdur-Rahim called it a blessing.

“Having to quit something cold turkey [is hard],” he said by phone from Sacramento. “Hopefully, I can take advantage of this and learn and do well in this and see where this leads me. Go from there.”

But “The Future” isn’t looking too far into the future.

The Wheeler High product and former Hawk is not one of those players who figured he’d eventually get into coaching. He doesn’t have any immediate goals of becoming a head coach.

“Right now I’m just taking it a day at a time, and we’ll see how it goes,” he said. “I’m not sure which way I’ll go with it, but I’ll try to learn as much as I can and help out as much as I can.”

Where it gets interesting for Abdur-Rahim is to go from player to coach on the same team. The same guys who were teammates last year in Sacramento —- Brad Miller, Mikki Moore and Shelden Williams —- are calling him “Coach” now and getting a kick out of it.

“They’ve been teasing me and messing with me,” he said. “But all of it has been good.”

The 6-foot-9 Abdur-Rahim can get hands-on with his players demonstrating moves on the court, and he knows how it feels to walk in their shoes.

“I’ve been in pretty much any situation these guys can be in,” Abdur-Rahim said. “Guys who look to score a lot of points, or guys who come off the bench, or if they’re traded, injured. [I can advise them] how to approach the game, how to prepare for the season, how to handle success, how to handle failure, how to deal with teammates, how to improve your game. That’s what I’ll try to do.”

Theus thinks he’ll help communication between players and coaches.

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders, and he’s a good person for guys to be around,” Theus said. “Hopefully, he’ll become a voice for me. He can spread my words and my theories in his words as a [former] player.”

The Kings are in a rebuilding mode, and Abdur-Rahim also has plenty of experience with that. He played for one winning team in 12 seasons in the NBA with Vancouver, Atlanta, Portland and Sacramento.

He set the NBA record for most games played before making the playoffs with 744. He made his one playoff appearance in 2006 with the Kings. He finished his career with 15,028 points, averaging 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He won an Olympic gold medal in 2000 and was an All-Star in the 2001-02 season with the Hawks.

By won-loss standards, his career fell short, but these days he’s more concerned with the bigger picture.

“I hope the coaches I played for felt like I did my best and worked hard for them,” Abdur-Rahim said. “The guys that I played with I hope they felt like I competed and played hard, that I was a good teammate and tried to help them. And the cities I played in, I hope they felt like I was an asset, not just as a basketball player, but as someone in those communities doing positive things.”