Rudy Gay has announced his retirement from basketball after 17 seasons in the NBA. He did so through an article in The Player’s Tribune. Gay, 38, last played in the 2022-23 season with the Utah Jazz. He signed with the Golden State Warriors this summer but was cut before the start of the season and it was then that he decided to call time on his career.
“I needed to be honest and say ‘look, this is over,'” Gay wrote.
“Accepting that this is over, that it’s… a process. Honestly I’m still dealing with the decision, I struggle with it. I’ll watch some games and see the guys drop some balls or miss passes. I’m one of those who shout at the TV ‘I’m better than that clown’. I know it’s not pretty.”
“I am 38 years old, that is not even half the professional life of many people so, in my view, I have a lot of work ahead of me. In the meantime, I feel extremely grateful for all the love, wisdom and friendship I have experienced in basketball.”
This is just part of what Gay wrote in The Player’s Tribune. A star at UConn, he was selected with the eighth pick in the 2006 Draft by the Houston Rockets and was immediately traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, where he was named to the All-Rookie Team.
He finished his stint as a Grizzlies player ranked fifth in points, fourth in minutes played and fourth in games played in franchise history.
Gay is one of the players capable of averaging 10 points from the 2006-07 season to 2020-21 along with Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and LeBron James.
After his time with the Grizzlies, he played for the Sacramento Kings and then the Toronto Raptors, San Antonio Spurs and, more recently, the Utah Jazz. With all of them he averaged 15.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in 1,120 games, 778 of which he started.
“I am the happiest man in the world,” Gay wrote to end his article.
