Former All-Star Paul Millsap is retiring from basketball. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the 16-year veteran is ending a career that saw him play his final NBA games during the 2021-22 season with the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.
The four-time All-Star was the No. 47 pick in the 2006 Utah Jazz Draft and quickly became a reliable low-post scorer and defender. He spent his first seven seasons with the Jazz, averaging 12.4 points, 7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 1 stoppage per game in 540 games.
He then moved to the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent, where he experienced most of his success.
In his first season with the Hawks (2013-14), Millsap averaged 17.9 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 3.1 apg, 1.7 spg and 1.1 bpg, making the first of four consecutive All-Star appearances. In 2014-15, he helped lead Atlanta to 60 wins and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since the 1969-70 season.
Millsap was named to the 2015-16 All-Defensive Second Team. After finishing his time in Atlanta, Millsap signed with the Denver Nuggets as a free agent in 2017.
In Denver, he was a first-line partner and veteran influencer on a budding youngster and future Kia MVP, Nikola Jokić. That duo helped lead Denver to the 2020 Western Finals, where it lost 4-1 to the Los Angeles Lakers.
After ending his time with the Nuggets at the end of the 2020-21 season, Millsap signed with the Nets in 2021 before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers along with All-Star guard James Harden in the sensational 2022 trade deadline.
Leave a comment