Ex-Bull Otto Porter Jr. declares retirement from pro career

A former Bull officially leaves the game for good.

© Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

A former member of the Chicago Bulls shockingly declared his recent retirement from professional basketball.

On Monday, former Bulls forward Otto Porter Jr. announced his desire to walk away from the game for good and end his 11-year NBA run.

Otto hangs up his sneakers

Porter Jr., formally stated his intention to retire in a press release with the Utah Jazz just hours after the said ball club released him from their lineup.

"For the past 11 years, I had the chance to live my lifelong dream of playing in the NBA. That dream was capped by winning an NBA Championship! Unfortunately, my body is not allowing me to play at the level that I expect of myself, and I have therefore decided to retire.”

The No. 3 overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft, Porter Jr. played for four other franchises besides the Bulls. He concluded his career with an average of 10.3 points, 4.9 boards, 1.5 assists, and 1.1 steals with 47.7 percent field goal shooting across 527 total regular season games.

Remembering Otto as a Bull

The Washington Wizards traded OPJ to the Bulls in the midseason of 2018-19. He then proceeded to play up the next two seasons, proudly repping the Chicago jersey.

The Bulls organization initially perceived Otto as a building block of their rebuild during that point. Unfortunately, the wingman struggled to be healthy and only played a total of 54 regular season games for the team from 2019 to 2021.

Despite injury issues and the small number of games he played for them, Porter Jr. still enjoyed the best statistical campaign of his career with the Bulls by averaging 12.5 points, 5.0 boards, and 2.1 assists per game.

Otto Porter Jr. was OTTOMATIC.

28 pts | 10-14 FG | 5 threes | 12 reb | 3 stl pic.twitter.com/yiZzUauLJT

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 1, 2021

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