Longtime NBA Forward Rudy Gay Formally Announces Retirement After 17 Years

The Brooklyn native found success in the professional, college and international games.

Rudy Gay with the Jazz. / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

After 17 years in the NBA, forward Rudy Gay is calling it a career.

Gay is retiring from basketball effective immediately, he announced in a Tuesday essay in The Players' Tribune. The 38-year-old Brooklyn native has not played in the NBA since March 22, 2023.

"I’m 38 years old. That’s nowhere even near mid-career for most people’s professional lives," Gay wrote in a candid piece. "So, the way I see it, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me."

Gay spent his professional career with the Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz. He is most closely associated with the Grizzlies, who he helped develop into a contender in the early 2010s; he averaged 17.9 points per game in 479 games with the team.

Never an All-Star and frequently injured, Gay nevertheless became a sought-after veteran presence late in his career—particularly with the Spurs, on which he helped bridge the transition between forward Kawhi Leonard- and guard DeMar DeRozan-led cores in the late 2010s.

"Those were the cards I was dealt. And I can honestly tell you that I did the best I could with those cards," Gay wrote. "I may not have been the best player on the planet, but I really did try my best."

Gay played two collegiate seasons with Connecticut, making the All-America team as a sophomore. He also won two FIBA World Cup gold medals with the U.S. men's national team.

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