LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Five-time All-Star guard Sidney Moncrief Friday announced his retirement after 10 seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, the last three hampered by knee injuries.
Moncrief, a first-round pick by the Bucks out of the University of Arkansas in 1979, helped Milwaukee into the playoffs in all 10 of his seasons.
Because of his knee injuries, the Bucks did not offer Moncrief a conctract after he became an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Moncrief, 32, told a news conference held in his old high school gymnasium that injuries and lack of demand for his services were the major reasons in his decision to retire.
'I think my injuries played a role in my decision but more importantly I think the market pretty much dictates that your services are no longer a very hot commodity,' Moncrief said.
'I didn't want to be the type of player that waited and waited for the opportunity when something I feel was telling me it's time for you to retire,' he said. 'I think the market told me and my body told me because the last couple of years I've had a number of injuries. Some opportunities outside of basketball told me it was the right time to go.'
It was reported he would join the television broadcast team of the Dallas Mavericks.
'That's what we're working on at this time,' he said, 'but it's still premature.'
Moncrief said he would like to coach in the NBA some day. He also plans to oversee an automobile dealership he owns in suburban Little Rock.
Moncrief said he was not bitter that the Bucks did not offer him a contract.
'No there is not any bitterness toward Milwaukee simply because they have given me the opportunity the last 10 years to play in a very good organization and they, in some ways, made Sidney Moncrief,' he said. 'I would probably have liked to have played one more year but I realize that at Milwaukee they had five or six guards and they just didn't have a position on their team for me.'
Moncrief denied a rumor he was offered a $900,000 to play for the New Jersey Nets. He admitted talking to the Nets but said there was no contract offer.
Moncrief, a 6-foot-4, 183-pound Little Rock native, played in only 39 of the Bucks' 82 games in 1986-87. He played in only 56 games in 1987-88 and 62 in 1988-89. He averaged 16.7 points in his career.
He was named to the All-NBA first team in 1983 and to the second team in 1982 and 1984-86. He was named NBA defensive player of the year in 1983 and 1984, and to the NBA All-Defensive first team in 1983-86 and to the second team in 1982.
In college, he led the Razorbacks to a third-place finish in the 1978 NCAA tournament.
