After 17 prolific years in the NBA, elite scorer Rudy Gay is calling it a career. reports Shams Charania of ESPN.
During the 2024 offseason, the 38-year-old combo forward indicated that he hoped to continue his career.
The 6-foot-8 University of Connecticut product last suited up for the Utah Jazz during the 2022-23 season. He was flipped to the Atlanta Hawks and then to the Oklahoma City Thunder during the summer of 2023, before ultimately being waived. Gay eventually signed with the Golden State Warriors’ preseason roster, but was cut prior to the start of the season.
Read more: Free Agent 17-Year NBA Vet Wants to Keep Playing
Gay was selected with the No. 8 pick in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Memphis Grizzlies. He suited up for Memphis for parts of seven seasons, emerging as one of the leading scorers on an ascendant Western Conference power.
“They was at square one and I was there,” Gay said on the podcast “7PM in Brooklyn With Carmelo Anthony & Kid Mero.” “The owner came to me and was like, ‘Yo, we’ve got a chance to get Zach Randolph.’ … Z-Bo came in and was like, ‘Yo, we’ve gotta win, gotta figure things out.'”
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Randolph was a talented scorer, but had been seen as something of a selfish ball handler who had been a problem spot in his previous stops, including the Portland Trail Blazers, New York Knicks and, most recently, the Los Angeles Clippers. Upon arriving to Memphis in 2009-10, the 6-foot-9 vet instantly turned the team — and his reputation — around. Randolph made his first All-Star team and led the Grizzlies to a solid 40-42 record.
The next year — armed with Randolph, Gay, point guard Mike Conley, center Marc Gasol and shooting guard Tony Allen — Memphis went 46-36 and finished with the West’s eighth seed, before upsetting the then-mighty San Antonio Spurs and pushing a loaded Oklahoma City Thunder squad to seven games. The team had officially arrived, and would go on to make the playoffs for seven straight seasons.
Unfortunately, Memphis enjoyed its most playoff success the moment it flipped Gay. Grizzlies management decided that he stopped the ball too much, and the club’s front office prioritized defense and movement when it ultimately opted to trade him to the Toronto Raptors midway through the 2012-13 season. That spring, the team advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the only time during this era.
Gay remained a sharpshooter on several lottery-bound clubs in Toronto and later with the Sacramento Kings. He finally joined a playoff squad during the 2017-18 season, when he suited up alongside All-Star small forward DeMar DeRozan and All-Star center LaMarcus Aldridge on the 47-35 San Antonio Spurs. Gay, now aged 31, was at a different point of his playing career. He transitioned from a small forward role into more of a complimentary power forward gig.
The Spurs finished with the West’s No. 7 seed and faced off against the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. San Antonio fell in five games. The next season, with Gay fully embracing a permanent bench role, the Spurs went 48-34, and lost in a seven-game series to the Denver Nuggets. He hopped over to the Utah Jazz in the summer of 2021.
Gay ends his career having netted $181.3 million in on-court earnings. Across 1,120 regular season games (779 starts), Gay averaged 15.8 points on .452/.346/.799 shooting splits, 5.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.7 blocks per bout.
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