Despite his having written a guest article in the Poughkeepsie Journal in 1987 arguing that a "[s]trike by [the] NBA players union would be difficult to justify" because "you can never recoup that lost money," the National Basketball Players Association hired Rinaldi in 2001 to serve as an educational counselor for NBA players. He called the job "the best thing to happen to me professionally" since his playing career. At the time, he was living in Skippack, Pennsylvania. , Rinaldi worked for the National Basketball Players Association, counseling players on the transition to post-basketball careers.
