Former NBA big man Meyers Leonard has officially retired as a basketball player, announcing the news on Instagram (hat tip to Chris Haynes).
After playing a modest role as a freshman at Illinois, Leonard had a breakout sophomore season back in 2011/12 with the Illini and was selected 11th overall in the 2012 draft.
Leonard, who turned 33 years old last week, spent his first seven seasons with the Trail Blazers prior to being traded to the Heat as part of the Jimmy Butler blockbuster in 2019.
Leonard’s time in Miami was not without controversy, as he was fined $50K by the NBA and suspended from all team activities for a week for making an anti-Semitic comment during a Twitch livestream. Shortly after the incident, he was traded to — and subsequently released by — Oklahoma City.
After missing the entire ’21/22 campaign due to an injury, Leonard was able to find a new team in February 2023, signing a pair of 10-day deals and then a rest-of-season contract with the Bucks. He has been a free agent since the 2023 offseason, when his tenure with Milwaukee ended.
Overall, Leonard played parts of 10 NBA seasons, averaging 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 15.9 minutes per game across 456 regular season appearances, including 95 starts. He mostly played center, but he also saw some time at power forward in his first few seasons. Leonard was known for his ability to space the floor, as he held a career mark of 39.0% from three-point range.
I’ll say it, wishing you well in retirement Meyers.
He can’t be worse than Alex Len. Don’t go, Leonard.
Okay, I’ll say it….he’s retired with over 60m in career earnings. It’s hilarious when people rag on a role player but he lasted 10 yrs in the NBA & made bank. I think his retirement will be better than yours & at age 30 something whilst the reat of us bang away until out late 60’s. Not everyone is a superstar!
what?
All pay for very little play. Don’t get me wrong, I wish that could have been me, absent the anti-semitism of course. I do love the members of the 12 tribes. He’s not a good guy, but he won the lottery all the same.
Meyers Leonard retires so guys like some “Nae’Qwan Tomlin” can get contracts from the Cavs. The G-League has ruined the NBA. Vets retire and literal NBA 2K Create-a-players still get contracts. I hate it.
Holy stupid opinion Batman.
Or, it could be that Leonard was never really that good and Tomlin has much more upside…Leonard “sat” for a completely different team…So, you believe the NBA should be filled with unskilled players? How does that make basketball better?
Sucks that every article written about Leonard feels it’s necessary to include him using an offensive word while playing a video game once. Imagine if every article about Anthony Edwards included that fact he filmed himself calling a group of homosexual men que#%$. That would be odd.
Leonard was suspended for it and it pretty much tanked his career. That didn’t happen to Edwards.
I solved the mystery for you.
Leonard’s career was over before then.
Well, he was suspended by the Heat when he made the comment andplayed in the NBA afterward, so unless you and I have a different definition of “over” you’re wrong.
So every player with a 10 plus year career needs to have their suspensions listed off upon retirement? You thinking that makes it worth bringing up? That would lead to A LOT of long negative articles about many of the league’s best players upon their final sports moment. Seems overly negative and irrelevant to me.
Or that chair incident when he ran off the court in Denver just after Twolves were eliminated from playoffs a few years back. Ant is a phenomenal talent – and he worked hard to get where he is – but his sometimes turbulent personality/demeanor will probably prevent him from ever becoming “the face of the league”. It doesn’t mean he won’t become the unanimous TOP PLAYER in the league – personally, I’d take the latter.