Somehow Richard Jefferson is still contributing positively to a team even after he retired and un-retired in the span of a few days. He’s actually not that old (36 is a lot younger than Kurt Thomas is right now) but the whole retirement thing made it seem like Jefferson was older than he was, and it also contributed to the idea that he had nothing left in the tank. On the surface, retirement made sense for him: he wanted to go out on top, not embarrass himself with a few more lackluster years where he’d be more of a token vet presence than a useful basketball player.
Retirement also gives a guy more chances to pursue his true hobbies. I’m not sure what Jefferson’s true hobbies are, but I bet he has them and I bet they’re not basketball.
Maybe the Cavs win another ring this year and Jefferson retires for real. But the rule should be, as long as you can still dunk, you should still be playing basketball. As soon as Jefferson loses his ability to throw down, he’s allowed to retire. He dunks in this game and it’s likely he’ll still be able to dunk by the time the playoffs roll around, so no retirement until after next season at the earliest.