LaMarcus Nurae Aldridge (born July 19, 1985) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 16 seasons. He played college basketball for two seasons with the Texas Longhorns. Aldridge was selected second overall in the 2006 NBA draft. After spending nine seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, he signed with the San Antonio Spurs in 2015. In March 2021, he signed with the Brooklyn Nets after the Spurs bought out his contract. He retired after two weeks due to an irregular heartbeat, but returned to the Nets the following season after receiving medical clearance.
Widely known for his signature fadeaway jump shot, Aldridge has been selected to five All-NBA teams and is a seven-time NBA All-Star.
Early life Aldridge's parents divorced when he was in the fifth grade and he was raised thereafter by his mother who worked for an insurance company. Aldridge grew up playing basketball alongside his older brother at parks in Dallas where he was considered to be "the tall kid who couldn't play." Standing at as an eighth grader, Aldridge was recruited by Robert Allen, the head basketball coach at Seagoville High School, because of his height.
High school career Aldridge attended Seagoville High School, where he became a second-team Parade All-American and Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) Class 4A Player of the Year.
Considered a five-star recruit by Rivals.com, Aldridge was listed as the no. 4 best center and the no. 16 player in the nation in 2004.
College career Aldridge attended the University of Texas at Austin. He declared for the 2004 NBA draft, but ultimately withdrew his name. According to one report, Aldridge's initial decision to attend college rather than entering the pro ranks directly from high school was influenced by Shaquille O'Neal's personal advice that he should go to college and then evaluate his NBA prospects. However, in April 2006, after the end of his second year with the Longhorns, Aldridge announced that he would leave college to enter the 2006 NBA draft.
Professional career
Portland Trail Blazers (2006–2015)
2006–07 season Aldridge was drafted second overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, only to have his rights traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for their pick, Tyrus Thomas, and Viktor Khryapa, shortly after. The Bulls acquired the pick from the New York Knicks in the 2005 Eddy Curry trade.
Aldridge missed the first seven games of the 2006–07 NBA season due to off-season shoulder surgery, but returned ahead of schedule due in part to an injury to fellow rookie teammate Brandon Roy. Aldridge made an immediate impact on offense, averaging 8.4 points on 54% shooting from the field through his first 14 games. After the loss of starting center Joel Przybilla, in February 2007 to season-ending knee surgery, Aldridge was awarded the starting center position and improved his scoring to 14.7 points with 8.0 rebounds per game in the month of March. This placed him second in the voting for the Western Conference Rookie of the Month to Roy. On March 31, 2007, in the first quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers, Aldridge was taken to Providence Hospital in Portland for shortness of breath and irregular heartbeat. He was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome on April 9 and missed the remaining eight games of the 2006–07 season. Aldridge started 22 games in his rookie season.
Aldridge was one of six players named to the 2007 NBA All-Rookie first team; he tied for fifth place with Toronto Raptors player Jorge Garbajosa.
2007–08 season Aldridge elevated his play in his second season, with career highs in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals, and finished third in voting for the NBA Most Improved Player Award. During this season, Aldridge had injury troubles due to plantar fasciitis, which caused him to miss games from December 11–18, 2007. After the time missed, Aldridge still had some trouble with the foot but was able to play effectively.
2008–09 season
Aldridge played inconsistently to start the season, adjusting to more defensive pressure. He called the first 15 games "the worst funk" of his life but gradually improved as the season went on.
Aldridge developed his offensive game over the course of the season, still relying heavily on his midrange fade away shot. He finished the season averaging 18.1 points and 7.5 rebounds. Aldridge scored over 20 points in half of the last 28 games of the season. For his first time in the league Aldridge nearly played a full season, missing only one game.
2009–10 season In late October, Aldridge signed a five-year, $65 million contract extension with Portland. Before committing to Aldridge, the Trail Blazers finalized a five-year, $80 million deal with All-Star Brandon Roy.
Aldridge put up similar numbers to the previous season. Early in December, Greg Oden suffered a season-ending injury. Aldridge received more minutes and offensive opportunities as a result.
2010–11 season Aldridge further emerged as both a player and a leader after Brandon Roy went out with knee problems in December 2010. In spite of Portland's "send LA to LA" program — the NBA All-Star game was in Los Angeles and Aldridge's nickname is "L-A" — Aldridge failed to get named to the Western Conference squad. LeBron James called Aldridge's omission as "the biggest snub in All-Star history." He was, however, awarded the NBA Player of the Week for January 17–23 and February 7–13, and scored a career-high 42 points against the Chicago Bulls on February 7, 2011. On March 2, he joined Clyde Drexler (1991) and Kelvin Ransey (1981) as the only Blazers to ever receive the NBA Player of the Month award. Aldridge was runner-up to Kevin Love for the Most Improved Player Award, and voted to the All-NBA Third Team with 135 votes.
2011–12 season Due to the lockout, the 2011–12 season did not start until Christmas Day 2011. Blazer fans were hopeful that the three players advertised in their "Rise With Us" promotional campaign (Aldridge, Roy, and Greg Oden) would finally have a chance to play together for a "full" season. Those plans evaporated when Roy, who suffered from chronic knee problems due to the lack of cartilage in them, retired and Oden, who had only played in 82 games in the previous four seasons, had yet another setback in his effort to rehabilitate his knees. Aldridge was named a reserve on the Western Conference All-Star team in 2012.
2012–13 season On November 12, 2012, Aldridge recorded a career-high eight assists in a 95–87 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. In 2013, Aldridge was named an All-Star for the second time in his career. He averaged 21.1 points per game, a career-high 9.1 rebounds per game and also recorded a career-high 2.6 assists per game in 37.7 minutes per game. The Trail Blazers went 33–49 and missed the playoffs for the second straight year.
2013–14 season Despite trade rumors during the 2013 offseason, Aldridge voiced his desire to stay put in Portland, while also asking for improvements to the Blazers' roster. Aldridge started out his eighth NBA season strong, recording five straight double-doubles from November 9 to 17. On November 23, 2013, in a game against the Warriors, Aldridge was involved in an altercation after Warriors center Andrew Bogut became entangled with Joel Freeland. On November 25, it was announced that he was fined $45,000 for escalating the incident. The very same day, Aldridge was named Western Conference Player of the Week for the fourth time in his career. The award came in the midst of an 11-game win streak for the Blazers, during which Aldridge averaged 21.1 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.5 blocks per game. On December 12, 2013, Aldridge scored 31 points and grabbed a career-high 25 rebounds in a 111–104 victory over the Houston Rockets, becoming the first player in Portland Trail Blazers franchise history with at least 30 points and 25 rebounds in a game. On January 23, 2014, Aldridge recorded a career-high 44 points along with 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks in a 110–105 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
The Trail Blazers went 31–10 over the first half of the 2014 season, consistently staying near the top of the Western Conference through the first three months of the season, and making a push for a return to the playoffs. Alongside teammate Damian Lillard, Aldridge was voted in as a reserve for the 2014 NBA All-Star Game, his third straight appearance. He finished fifth in the frontcourt fan voting, garnering over 600,000 votes.
Aldridge suffered a lower back contusion during the third quarter of a game versus the San Antonio Spurs on March 12, 2014. He missed the next seven games but returned in time to help the Blazers secure their 30th playoff berth and first since 2011.
On April 20, 2014, Aldridge recorded a new career high and franchise playoff high of 46 points along with 18 rebounds, two assists, and two blocks in Game 1 of the opening round of the playoffs against the Houston Rockets which ended in a 122–120 overtime win for the Portland Trail Blazers. On April 23, 2014, in Game 2 of the Blazers' series against the Houston Rockets, Aldridge tallied 43 points and eight rebounds. He joined Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Allen Iverson, and Tracy McGrady as the only players in NBA history to score 89 or more points in the first two games of a playoff series. Over the entire six-game series with Houston, Aldridge averaged 29.8 points and over 2.5 blocks per game. In the next series against the Spurs, Aldridge struggled, shooting only 41.7 percent from the field, as the Blazers were handily defeated in five games. Ultimately, Aldridge had a career season in 2014, winning three Western Conference Player of the Week awards, and recording career highs in points per game, rebounds per game, free-throw percentage, defensive rebounds, and double-doubles.
2014–15 season
On December 9, 2014, in a game against the Detroit Pistons, Aldridge passed Terry Porter for second on the franchise's all-time scoring list with 11,333 career points. After leading Portland over the first half of the season with averages of 23.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, Aldridge was ruled out for six to eight weeks on January 23, 2015, after tearing the radial collateral ligament in his left thumb. However, he missed just two games after deciding against surgery and returned to the starting lineup on January 24 against the Washington Wizards, scoring 26 points in a victory that followed two losses with him sidelined. After being selected as a frontcourt reserve to his fourth straight NBA All-Star Game appearance on January 29, Aldridge was named as a starter on February 14 by Western Conference All-Star head coach Steve Kerr, replacing the injured Anthony Davis.
On March 20, 2015, Aldridge became the Trail Blazers' all-time leader in rebounds by recording 10 against the Orlando Magic. Meanwhile, however, the Blazers were cooling off after a 30–11 record through the first 41 games of the season when shooting guard Wesley Matthews, whom Aldridge called "the heart and soul" of the Trail Blazers, tore his Achilles tendon on March 5 against the Dallas Mavericks and missed the rest of the season and playoffs. The Blazers subsequently went 21–20 through their final 41 games. In the playoffs, the short-handed Blazers were outplayed and outmatched by the Memphis Grizzlies in five games. Aldridge averaged a career-best 23.4 points per game, made a league-best 659 field goals, and was voted onto the All-NBA Second Team.
San Antonio Spurs (2015–2021) 2015–16 season