Sasha Kaun is retiring from professional basketball just five weeks after winning a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Russian center who won an NCAA title with the Kansas Jayhawks eight years ago told the Lawrence Journal-World's Gary Bedore that his first season in the NBA would be his last:
Kaun said he started thinking seriously about retirement "toward the end of the season. I kind of feel my ankle has been bothering me awhile. With the amount of pain I was going through, I just wanted to be done. It's something I've had all my career," he added of right ankle problems. "It was definitely getting worse and worse, year by year. Especially coming here (one year in NBA after seven seasons in Moscow) ... the intensity of the game I just kind of realized I don't think I can go and do it any more.
"I said, 'You know what? I'm not going to be happy playing. I'm not going to be happy not playing. I think it's a good time to call it quits.'''
Kaun has had a strange and successful career. After winning the national championship, he spent seven seasons playing for CSKA Moscow. He was drafted No. 56 overall in 2008, but won five Russian League championships, five VTB United League championships and a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games before making his NBA debut at 30 years old.
Internationally, Kaun was known as an excellent solid finisher who could also protect the paint and bully people inside. Had he come to the NBA sooner and healthier, he could have been a regular contributor. With the Cavaliers, though, he only appeared in 25 games in the regular season, playing almost exclusively in garbage time. Earlier this month, Cleveland traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers to free up a roster spot for Chris Andersen, and the Sixers waived him. This probably wasn't how he envisioned his career ending, but he gets to go out a champion.
