Legends come and go in basketball, but the remembrance of their talent on the court is what keeps them relevant.
Last year, the Chico State men’s basketball team lost three seniors, including men’s basketball forward Tanner Giddings who averaged 29 minutes per game last season. Giddings was a major impact player, a top scorer and reliable at snagging rebounds.
As Chico State experiences losses in its rosters across sports so do the professional leagues. The NBA has been transitioning to a new era of basketball with the recent departure of players like Amar’e Stoudemire.
Chico State will also lose fundamental players to its sports teams like Rajaee DeLane, Torey Thompson and Robert Duncan. Although their impact on the teams and school they represented will be remembered, the loss of such critical players is sure to shake the sporting world of Chico State.
DeLane is a prolific scorer and helped the men’s soccer team turn their record around earlier in the season. Thompson is the assist leader for the women’s volleyball team who recently broke 3,000 career assists and became only the fourth Wildcat to accomplish that feat.
Duncan led the men’s basketball team to the CCAA Championship last year and is a successful scorer and contributor for the team.
Athletes leaving is nothing new to sports, but the sudden migration of so many across multiple leagues and divisions is ushering in new faces and tactics.
Whether it’s the loss of Peyton Manning, Kobe Bryant or Lionel Messi, the sporting world is shaken and will look to its new faces to become as successful and honor the legacy of past players.
The reliance on players like Carson Wentz, Anthony Davis and Mike Trout to act as the face of their sports and develop new tactics to keep their leagues entertaining is critical to the future of the sports world.
Even Chico State will need to find players to help overcome the lack of returners and centers and the loss of important post players to help bolster its offense.
As the professional leagues work to find new star players and promote big names in the leagues today, it also focuses on the departing talent. Whether it’s quarterbacks or point guards, the memory of successful players in each league and the way new players evolve previous tactics is what shapes the sporting world.
Chico State will need to follow suit and look to its upcoming stars to fill in the gaps in its rosters. Players like Alex Fluitt, Camryn Rocha and Calvin Geraci. All might be first-year players, but they will carry on the winning legacy in Wildcat athletics.
Gabriel Moreno can be reached at [email protected] or @GabeSports3 on Twitter.
