The NBA is increasingly becoming a young person’s game, with 27-year-olds Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić taking down the last three NBA MVP titles between them. This comes after a long spell of dominance from more established players such as James Harden and Steph Curry.
With no man able to outrun old father time, some of those big names of yesteryear, who have been clinging onto NBA contracts by a thread, may now be looking to bow out of the sport on their own terms. Here are some of the biggest names in the league, who could be about to call time on their playing careers once and for all.
The NBA is a gruelling league to grind a career out of and some of these men might just decide that enough is enough, especially seeing as they have plenty of money in the bank
Andre Iguodala – Golden State Warriors
Golden State are the exception to the norm in the modern NBA landscape, being led as they are by two of the oldest veterans in the league, Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala, who have many sports betters believing that it could be time for the Warriors to win back the NBA Championship.
While it would be unthinkable for such a high scorer as Curry to cut his career short this summer, there are plenty of solid NBA predictions out there which insinuate that Iguodala might.
It is rare for a top player to leave the sport while they are still considered one of its elite ballers by bettors and fans – a prospect that might appeal to this evergreen 38-year-old who has always done things his own way.
It is not as if the Springfield, Illinois native has anything left to prove. He has three NBA Championship titles to his name, two of which came back-to-back in 2017 and 2018. He has also won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA as well as a FIBA World Championship crown.
During the 2011-12 season, when a lockout kept play on the NBA’s boards to a minimum, Iguodala undertook an internship at investment bank, Merrill Lynch. That could point towards how this former Arizona Wildcat will spend his retirement: making winning plays off the court just as he did on it.
The Lakers are just one of the NBA’s rosters that has some old heads in it, some of which who may choose to hang up their jerseys come the end of the season
Taj Gibson – New York Knicks
Gibson is one of those NBA stalwarts who just battles on year after year and season after season, doing the hard yards both in training and on game day, so that those players who typically hog the limelight can shine as bright as they do.
He is now playing that role at the New York Knicks, a team who have not exactly set the world alight this season. That might be just the cue that this power forward needs to bring the curtain down on what has been a stellar and yet understated pro basketball career.
Udonis Haslem – Miami Heat
Power Forward Udonis Haslem has been making Miami’s opponents feel the heat since all the way back in 2003. Almost two decades later and he is still a part of the Heat franchise and one of the rare one-franchise players in the league.
Only a brief stint in French basketball prior to him being drafted has meant that Haslem has turned out for another pro-outfit that isn’t the Heat. On June 9th he will turn 42 and become one of the oldest players ever to have competed at the elite level of the sport.
He is kept on the roster in Miami more for his impact off the court than what he is able to bring on it, although he did create quite a stir in his sole appearance of the 20/21 season, as he got ejected from the game after getting into it with Dwight Howard.
The Heat have certainly been showing that sort of fight this season and maybe Haslem has something to do with it.
