Rudy Gay announces retirement | Hoops Rumors

Rudy Gay has decided to call it a career, according to ESPN's Shams Charania, who reports (via Twitter), that the veteran NBA forward is retiring. Gay confirmed the news with an article in The Players' Tribune.

The 38-year-old Gay was the eighth pick in the 2006 draft out of UConn. He began his professional career at the Grizzlies and spent his first six and a half seasons in Memphis before being sent to the United States Raptors before the 2013 trade deadline.

Less than a year later, the forward moved to Sacramento and spent three and a half seasons there Kings (2013-17) before moving to San Antonio in the 2017 offseason. He ended his NBA career by playing for the Spurs for four seasons (2017-21) and the jazz for two years (2021-23).

Gay was in camp with the Warriors in the fall of 2023 but did not make the regular season roster and has not played for an NBA team since, although he was still paid by the Thunder in 2023-24 after being waived in July 2023 with the remaining amount guaranteed on his contract.

Over the course of his 17 NBA seasons, Gay amassed 17,642 career points, ranking him just behind at 91st on the league's all-time scoring list Magic Johnson And Shawn Marion. Gay averaged 15.8 PPG with a .452/.346/.799 shooting line in 1,120 total regular season appearances (779 starts). He also contributed 5.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.1 steals per game.

In several statistical categories, including points (fifth), rebounds (fifth) and steals (fourth), Gay is still among the Grizzlies' all-time franchise leaders. He averaged at least 20 points per game in three different seasons, including 2014-15 when he posted a career-best 21.1 PPG for the Kings.

The 6-foot-2 forward never made it to an All-Star Game, but he finished third in the 2007 Rookie of the Year voting and was named to the All-Rookie First Team. His career earnings exceeded $184 million, according to Basketball-Reference.

“I am 38 years old” Gay wrote in his Players' Tribune article. “For most people in their professional lives, this is still far from the middle of their career. The way I see it, I still have a lot of work to do. I just need to figure out what exactly that means.

“Maybe it’s public speaking, or media, or business. We'll see. I have a contracting company, a real estate company. I own the gym PickUp USA Fitness in Towson, Maryland. There are a lot of things that I've already devoted some time to. Now it’s just a matter of finding a big new thing that I love and then putting my energy into it.”