JJ Redick, the sniper who was the Associated Press college player of the year in Duke Before embarking on a 15-season NBA career, he announced his retirement on Tuesday.
Redick, 37, played for six NBA teams: the Orlando Magic, LA Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Pelicans, Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks. He averaged 12.8 points in 940 regular-season games, and his 1,950 career triples put him 15th on the NBA’s all-time list for 3-point baskets.
“When I was a 7-year-old boy, I dreamed of playing Duke as I grew up. I dreamed of playing in the NBA,” Redick said on his “The Old Man and the Three” podcast. “The last 30 years of basketball have gone beyond my biggest dreams. I could never have imagined that I would have played basketball for so long. After years of youth leagues, AAU, high school basketball, four years at Duke and 15 Years in the NBA, I’m retiring from the game that I love so much. “
Redick is the leading scorer in Duke history, with 2,769 points in his college career. He also remains Duke’s all-time leader in triples by a wide margin at 457 and free throw accuracy at 91.2%. Redick averaged 26.8 points, another Duke record, in his senior year on his way to winning the AP Player of the Year award, before being selected as the 11th pick by Orlando in the 2006 NBA draft.
He played in the NBA playoffs in each of his first 13 professional seasons, reached the NBA Finals with Orlando in 2009 and had a career-high 40 points for the Clippers in an overtime win over Houston on April 18. January 2016.
Injuries limited him to 44 games for the Pelicans and Mavericks last season, when he shot 37%, the second-lowest mark of his career, from 3 points and averaged just 7.4 points, the first time he has not reached double digits in more than one of each.
“It was difficult for a number of reasons,” Redick said. “Being injured, being away from my family, COVID protocols and really, not living up to my standards. I’d like to describe last season as a seven-month exercise to come face to face with my own athletic mortality, and it was scary and confusing. ”
Some teams berated him about his availability for this season, Redick said, and told them he would wait before deciding if he wanted to play another year. And now, with the league’s training camps starting from next week, he made his decision.
“Now I have some clarity and I know it’s time,” Redick said. “It’s time for me to be a parent. It’s time for me to reflect, pause, and it’s time for me to prepare for the next phase of my life.”
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