Zydrunas Ilgauskas is one of a large collection of big men that sit barely used on the Miami bench, clearly not having the trust of coach Erik Spoelstra. Big Z has played a total of 32 minutes in the Heat’s last five games, racking up 8 points.
He told a Lithuanian paper that he is too old for this stuff anymore and that he’s going to retire. Something that friend of the site Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel confirmed (via twitter) Ilgauskas is telling people around the team.
(That is the Google translation of the Lithuanian publication, so it may not be word-for-word accurate.)
Miami desperately needs a good center who can do the dirty work and help out next to Chris Bosh. Desperately. But Big Z is not that guy, not at this point in his career. That said, he has had a good NBA career and if he walks away he should do so head high.