Pretty much.

That and getting injured is how most players retire from the nba

I wouldn’t say 99% but probably the majority yes

Yep. Players deciding when they retire is the exception, not the norm.

Pretty much, its really only known players/stars that you hear about that either retire, or find out that they aren’t picked up by any team.

The bench players or role players that aren’t mainstream, they sort’ve just fade into the background sadly. Like unless you follow some of these guys on social media, chances are you’d never know that they aren’t in the league anymore.

It’s a special thing to be able to walk away on your own terms, leaving the game you love without being a severely diminished player.

For most guys it’s all they know and it’s incredibly hard to face uncertainty.

I don’t think guys are too often blindsided when NBA contracts stop coming and for a lot of fringe guys it’s more beneficial to play overseas anyways. It’s not sad really, players generally are able to continue making money around basketball in some capacity

About 40 players drafted in every class end up playing a game in the NBA, every team has a roster limit so 40 players leave the league every year, the vast majority of them unceremoniously.

Here are some players you probably didn’t notice fade away and not get picked up: Eric Bledsoe, Ish Smith, Joe Johnson, Reggie Jackson, Delon Wright, Richaun Holmes, Josh Richardson, Jake Layman, Malachi Flynn, Vlatko Cancar.

There are countless others who just faded away either playing overseas or just stopped playing

yup, remember tomas satoransky?

I think people may be forgetting the money part. We may be so used to hearing these big numbers that we forget how big a number a million is. Guys want to get as much as they can for as long as they can.

Most players will go to Europe first and try to find a way back to the NBA.

Jeremy Lin said his agent told him he has to play in Europe if he wants to be back in the league, but ultimately he decided to play in China.

I guess they will go Europe > China > Japan > South America/Phillipines until their body give up or they just convert into a coaching role back in the states.

Yep. Betcha didn’t even know Bojan Bogdanovic retired this season. That’s how *95% of guys go out.

The NFL is far sadder. Once you’re out of the league (and NFL careers tend to be the shortest of the big 4), you have very few places left to go. Pretty much XFL, Practice Squad, end of list. The NBA, MLB, and NHL at least you have foreign leagues to compete in, plus the minor league levels. The NFL, you’re likely SOL if you aren’t playing at a good level, not to mention how easy it is for teams to cut you relative to other leagues with far more protections for its players.

Eric Bledsoe I think could have played 1-2 more years but he knew it was time, he probably was getting smoked defensively. Same with Gordon Hayward, I think simply someone replaced him who is rookie.

It’s not 99%, but when some guy was pretty good for your team, and you forgot about him for a while, and he announces his retirement, and you realize he hadn’t played in three years, but played a couple of games every year in the Gleague trying to get another shot… that feels bad 99% of the time.

Yep. Many will not officially retire for a year or two after their last contract in an effort to land another. Others will play overseas if they have the chance. Most pro athletes don’t get to decide when they retire, the sport decided for them.

Yep pretty much. Go look at rosters from 5 years ago for bottom tier teams. You will struggle to identify most names.

Watching Anthony Gill hang around the Wizards gives me hope that good guys get to stick around a bit longer.

Doesn’t hurt to have good character on the bench.

Do you remember Jerome Robinson? Clippers picked him 13th in the 2018 draft, one pick ahead of Michael Porter Jr. He never found his footing and even looked sad when things were going poorly. He’s now playing in Turkey.

Check out the current free agent list. 

Lots of guys there like Markelle Fultz, Chris Boucher, Spencer Dinwiddie, Cory Joseph, Trey Lyles, Cam Reddish….guys you remember from 2 or 3 years ago. 

If you were asking about guys who had already established themselves in the league, then I think generally they struggle to know when the time is up

But most NBA players don’t stick in the league anyway so we’ll just naturally end up either going overseas or to the G League. I would imagine most of these expect to work their way back to the NBA at some point, just because most professional sportsmen have that level of self-confidence

Usually the teams thing. I figure most players , even if they slow down or don’t do as much or as successfully, tend to think they can just turn it up if need be. Especially if they’re still early to mid 30’s. But when teams don’t want you, or they don’t see you as a “fit” anymore, that’s when it’s obvious you’re done and at that point it’s retire or do the overseas thing, which can actually be pretty lucrative money wise. U can imagine guys like Derozan or Lillard, who probably starting to slow down, get older, injuries catching up, etc…could probably go overseas and make great money playing for France or Spain, China, etc….

Cut, waived, not picked up.

In the same vein, substantially more head coaches get fired than retire with the team.

Is it the same in NFL?

Anybody with a name gets a 1 day contract with the team of their choce and gets a retirement sendoff from the org.

Anybody else fades away hopefully playing enough years to qualify for benefits.

Fultz :(

The movie Moneyball has a great scene about this, with a player who’s on the wrong side of an injury, hoping desperately for the phone to ring

The average NBA career is less than 5 years. Going for 12+ years is normal for stars, but a lot more guys flame out during their first contract.

Like any other sport its always about how good you are. The better the player then usually they go out on thier own terms but for 99% of any league players dont get to decide.

Of course barring injury then all bets are off

I doubt that it’s either unexpected or particularly sad. It’s not unexpected because contracts are often multiple years long and players and their agents have had plenty of time to get a sense of what league interest is in them, and I doubt it’s unexpected because even the worst NBA players with the shortest careers make more in a few years than the median lifetime earnings of a US household (\(1.7 million). Hunter Tyson for example, made almost \)1.9 million last year. They could retire at 24 and live a modest but comfortable middle class lifestyle. I have a hard time calling that sad.

99% feels high but for the most part yea

In order to have a riding off into the sunset retirement three things have to converge:

 

1. Your skill and talent level
2. Your ranking of your skill and talent level
3. Your desire to be finished
   

 

Most players do not have a realistic ranking of their own skill and desire to keep competing long after teams are willing to pay them.

I would assume yes.

Average NBA career is like… 4-5yrs if i remember right. Those guys that only last a few years can probably tell when their time is up. Those guys that make it 8-10yrs can most likely tell when their time is up just cause they probably have a better idea based off who they’ve seen leave throughout their career.

Hell I think the longer you’re in the league, the more obvious it is when your time is up.

Either they know or they are in denial.

Head overseas to try and continue their career. Sometimes have to face the hard reality.

Depends. Most of the time they can just go overseas and continue having a career out there. The NBA is just that much better to where any player is guaranteed to have spot overseas if they really want. So it’s not that sad to me.

I think the ones that make me sad are when the big name players fall off. They go from being the kings of their cities to hoping that any team will take a chance on them and pick them up. CP3, Wall, Cousins, Dwight, Melo all kind of went out sad in recent memory. I really hope Lebron decides to retire before he gets to that point and has a farewell tour like Kobe did where he’s still able to play.

I mean they have agents that gauge interest around the league, so it’s probably not often a huge shock, if disappointing. 

ask Michael Carter-Williams

Yes. Very few players get to decide when they retire. For 99.99% the league decides for them.