4-Time NBA All-Star Announces Retirement After 16-Year Career

After a decorated 16-year NBA career, four-time All-Star combo forward Paul Millsap is officially retiring, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.

The 6-foot-7 big man was selected with the No. 47 overall pick in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz out of Louisiana Tech, and wound up emerging as one of the best players from among his draft class, which also included seven-time All-Star power forward/center LaMarcus Aldridge, six-time All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry, four-time All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo, and three-time All-Star shooting guard Brandon Roy.

With Millsap's official retirement, he leaves only two players from his class — Lowry and power forward P.J. Tucker — active in the league.

Millsap instantly emerged as a crucial role player on a deep 51-31 Jazz club during his 2006-07 rookie season, finishing sixth in Rookie of the Year voting (Roy won). He was a critical reserve during his early years under late Hall of Fame head coach Jerry Sloan, playing alongside All-Star point guard and All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer.

Millsap finished among the top 17 in vote recipients for Sixth Man of the Year honors twice, in 2008-09 and 2009-10. He finally emerged as a full-fledged starter (and a perennial Zach Lowe favorite) the subsequent season, 2010-11, upon Boozer's free agency departure.

The two-way pro was relatively unheralded during his workmanlike tenure in Utah, but fully blossomed as an All-Star when he hopped over to the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent for the 2013-14 season, making All-Star berths in each of his four seasons with the club.

Atlanta peaked as a competitive power in the Eastern Conference during Millsap's second year with the franchise. The Hawks posted an East-best 60-22 record under head coach Mike Budenholzer with a refreshingly egalitarian approach on offense, resulting in four of the team's five starters — Millsap, center Al Horford, point guard Jeff Teague, and shooting guard Kyle Korver — being named to the All-Star team that season. The club advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, where it was swept by the starrier Cleveland Cavaliers, en route to their first of four consecutive NBA Finals appearances.

Millsap enjoyed an even more decorated run the next year, finishing fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting and notching his only All-Defensive Team career honor. As Atlanta's fortunes faded, Millsap looked West, towards a growing league force, for his next shot at championship glory.

Ultimately, Millsap declined his $21.5 million player option for the 2017-18 season with the Hawks, and joined the then-rising Denver Nuggets on a two-year, $61 million deal. Playing the Jerami Grant/Aaron Gordon defensive-oriented power forward role, Millsap helped unlock All-NBA Denver center Nikola Jokic. The team advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in over a decade with Millsap in the fold, circa 2020, before Millsap's championship dreams were felled yet again by LeBron James, now with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jokic won his first of three league MVP awards during Millsap's final season with the Nuggets, 2020-21.

In 2021-22, Millsap split what wound up being his final NBA season chasing that ever-elusive first league title as an undersized, deep-bench reserve center on the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.

After failing to land an NBA contract for the past two seasons, Millsap has apparently opted to call it a career at last. He'll be remembered as a versatile two-way force. Though never particularly flashy, he was a solid reserve who often took on the toughest defensive assignments along the wing or in the frontcourt, to let his teammates prioritize their offense. But that doesn't mean he was chopped liver as a scorer, either.

Across 1,085 career regular season games (746 starts), Millsap boasts averages of 13.4 points on .489/.341/.736 shooting splits, 7.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.0 blocks a night.

The NBA, at least, valued what Millsap could bring to clubs competing for titles during the 2010s. Per Spotrac, the 39-year-old netted $192,540,558 in on-court earnings alone during his NBA run.

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