Rudy Gay has decided to call it a career, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the veteran NBA forward is retiring. Gay confirmed the news with an article in The Players’ Tribune.
Gay, 38, was the eighth overall pick in the 2006 draft out of UConn. He began his professional career with the Grizzlies and spent his first six-and-a-half seasons in Memphis before being sent to the Raptors ahead of the 2013 trade deadline.
The forward was flipped to Sacramento less than a year later and spent three-and-a-half seasons with the Kings (2013-17) before moving onto San Antonio during the 2017 offseason. He wrapped up 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 during the fall of 2023, but didn’t make the regular season roster and hasn’t played for an NBA team since then, though he was still being paid by the Thunder in 2023/24 after being waived in July 2023 with guaranteed money left on his contract.
Over the course of his 17 NBA seasons, Gay compiled 17,642 career points, which places him 91st on the league’s all-time scoring list, right behind Magic Johnson and Shawn Marion. Gay averaged 15.8 PPG across 1,120 total regular season outings (779 starts), with a shooting line of .452/.346/.799. He also chipped in 5.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per contest.
Gay still ranks among the Grizzlies’ all-time franchise leaders in a handful of statistical categories, including points (fifth), rebounds (fifth), and steals (fourth). He averaged at least 20 points per game in three separate seasons, including in 2014/15, when he put up a career-best 21.1 PPG for the Kings.
The 6’8″ forward never made an All-Star Game, but finished third in Rookie of the Year voting in 2007 and was named to the All-Rookie First Team. His career earnings exceeded $184MM, per Basketball-Reference.
“I’m 38 years old,” Gay wrote in his Players’ Tribune article. “That’s nowhere even near mid-career for most people’s professional lives. So, the way I see it, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. I just need to figure out what exactly that means.
“Maybe it’s public speaking, or media, or business. We’re gonna see. I have a contracting company, a real estate company. I have the PickUp USA Fitness gym in Towson, Maryland. There are a bunch of things I’ve already begun devoting some time to. Now it’s just a matter of finding one big new thing that I love, and then throwing my energy into it.”
I loved Rudy Gay’s game. Great size, great fundamentals, simply he just got it done.
He wasn’t nearly as good as Brandon Roy but I see a lot of similarities. Yes Brandon Roy won a lot of ball games and Rudy Gay was not that kind of player, but the mid-range game and the “iso Joe” type of method to get a bucket when necessary was something I saw in Rudy Gay that Brandon Roy was famous for.
I always wanted him on the Warriors but of course his salary was approaching that of a star and his play was more of a Harrison Barnes kind of guy on the periphery. Definitely worth the salary because of the value he brings to the team, but the Warriors could never afford him when his contract did come up.
Plus the teams he played for would never let him go of course, until the end of his career when his production unsurprisingly started to wane with his increased age.
Kudos to Rudy for a great NBA career.
I always wanted MORE from Rudy Gay. When he first came out, he was a rival to Danny Granger but as the seasons went on, he was just happy being a role player. Kudos to a long career but he should have been better than what he accomplished.
You know what you’re right. Danny Granger was a stud who just got cut short because of the knee. Amazing player and that’s a fact.
Danny Granger before his injuries was fantastic. I really thought he was going to be the superstar they needed post Reggie and post Malice in the Palace and pre PG13. Shame he got hurt, but for a few years he was on the cusp of being a special talent in NapTown.
Houston traded his rights for Shane Battier. I’d say that worked well for both teams.
He’s on UCONN’s Mount Rushmore.
#gay
#dumb.
He’s a good dude and was a great mentor. He should consider continuing mentoring players, kinda like what Kobe did. He’s still young enough that he can keep up with them, too. Then see where that leads. It was just the right time to retire from playing on the court. Happy for him and his new path. =)
Always wanted him on the Warriors after they lost Harrison Barnes. Underrated wing, really solid regular, “hall of very good”-type.
Hall of Famer IMO
lmao not even close
Never been a big Gay guy, but he’s had a nice career and $181 MM in earnings ain’t nothing to sneeze at. Enough to enjoy a merry gay time.
Besides being a very good scorer with an all around game, in Memphis, he was an outstanding athlete. He could dunk with the best of them. I have to think that, at least in Toronto also, he still retained this athleticism (I assume in SAC too). In his Spurs days and after, he was an off-the-bench scoring combo forward, effective, relying more in size and scoring ability to produce, with, as has been said, unsurprisingly less athleticism due to age
Great player that always seemed like a teams stop gap, but he filled a huge hole when he joined the kings, they’d been looking for a 3 for years. Definitely will be a part of the hall of very good but forgotten(in no way at all am I saying he belongs in the hall)
Congrats Rudy! Bleed Blue! Husky for Life