NBA veteran Rudy Gay announces retirement after 17 seasons

The 38-year-old last appeared in a game for the Utah Jazz during the 2022-23 season. 

Gay played at UConn from 2004-06, during which time he was Big East Rookie of the Year as a freshman and earned first-team All-American honors during his sophomore season.

Drafted No. 8 overall by the Houston Rockets in the 2006 NBA Draft, Gay was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, where he spent the first seven seasons of his career. 

Along with leading the Grizzlies to their first playoff series win in franchise history when they defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the 2010-11 season, Gay would average 17 points or more in all but one season with the franchise. Gay was a force underneath the basket, averaging at least five rebounds per game during six of his seven seasons in Memphis.

Despite playing for the Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, and Utah Jazz for the rest of his career, Gay remained a presence. Until a torn Achilles limited his playing time and overall production later in his career, Gay continued to average double-figure scoring through the 2020-21 season, scoring as many as 21.1 points a game with the Kings in the 2014-15 season.

Gay's consistency shooting the ball was impressive throughout his career as well. Until his final season with the Jazz, Gay only shot less than 40 percent from the field once, during his abbreviated 2013-14 season with the Raptors, before he was traded to the Kings midseason.

Gay's consistency from 2006-07 to 2020-21 seasons put him in elite company. Averaging 10 or more points during that time, Gay joined Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and LeBron James as the only players to accomplish the feat.

In a piece for The Players' Tribune on Tuesday, Gay wrote, "I needed to humble myself and be like: 'Look, this is over.' "But actually coming to grips with it being over, that's ... a process. ... In the meantime, I'm just feeling extremely grateful for all the love, wisdom, and friendship that I've experienced in the game of basketball."

Factoring in the playoff games Gay appeared in, he played in 1,139 games in his career. Gay averaged 15.8 points and 5.6 rebounds while shooting 45.2 percent from the floor.

While Gay was great on the court, he was also great away from it, working as a Hoops for St. Jude campaign ambassador during his time with the Grizzlies.