Achara to retire at end of season

Nothing at all (I was brought up to like Liberace by my mother who was a piano and music teacher and adored him) but the whole American gaudy ring thing always makes me laugh in their sports world. A medal suffices for the Olympics and other sports.

I like them. Medals are a bit boring. The rings are often unique and interesting.

I don't think there's a single Pro-Basketball player in the world that wouldn't wear a NBA playoff championship ring (if they won it)

Are you thinking of EJ Harrison? Won the NCAA tournament with UConn?

Me and my belly rumbling again!!

Disappointed and slightly surprised at this. As much as he's an excellent and well respected player (possibly one of Scotland's best ever?), I don't see where he's truly made his mark in Rocks history. I've no doubt many folk will lap this up. C'est la vie.

Agree with gonk and bigz. Was certainly surprised by this and no idea what merits the award.

Rob yanders if anyone should be on that list.

5 or 6 seasons. 4 or 5 time team of the year. Took us to many finals. Represented GB

Plus did alot in the community and used his story to help.

www.gbbasketball.com/players/men/index.php?player=97053&includeref=dynamic

Its what this opens the Rocks up to that irks me.

Now Murray's is going to have to be retired without question - he's given a lot more to the Rocks than Achara.

How long does Fraser have to stay to have his retired?

If Bunyan wins a trophy next season and happens to have the game of his life in the final, does he get his retired? Would that be harsh on the likes of Yanders who was consistently excellent without winning anything (I'd argue retiring Achara's already makes it seem harsh on him tbh)?

This isn't to say of course that Achara isn't a fantastic pillar of the community and has been in Scotland's top two ever players (he has and is) - but its his contribution to the ROCKS (not Scotland) that I feel doesn't warrant it to be honest.

Why do I keep reading four years? It'll be five in a few weeks. Five and a bit if you include his brief stint in 2012. That's not an enormous term of service but it is significant in a league where most teams struggle to keep hold of quality players for more than a couple of seasons.

I also think the idea that he effectively only gave the arse end of his career to the club is well wide of the mark. He first put on a Rocks jersey at 29 and seemingly committed the remainder of his career to the team at 31, an age where he could probably have been doing quite a bit better. I'm sure it was suggested at the time that he was turning down more money and/or better opportunities elsewhere. And I don't find that at all hard to believe given that he played Eurocup (not the competition Riders were in this season, a much better one) the previous year.

Have Rocks been brilliantly successful during his time there? Obviously not. But I'm confident they'd have been a fair bit worse without him. Reality check... As high as fans seem to want to set the bar for this team, we're talking here about a club that's won one trophy in 20 years... Hardly an organisation with an illustrious history of hoovering up silverware.

Whilst I'm no Scottish basketball historian, I imagine he probably is one of the country's best ever players. That's likely a factor in this. In BBL terms he's also been a one club player (quite possibly to the detriment of his career) unlike some of these other names being thrown up.

Does all of that mean his number should be retired? I don't know, or care that much if I'm honest. But I am surprised that the sentiment against it is so strong. Not sure some Rocks fans fully appreciate what they've had here.

The other 3 retired jerseys at Rocks are

Maclean
Berry
Davis

How do they compare. If I've understood it correctly only Davis played more than 4 years?