Nemanja Bjelica officially retires from basketball

Nemanja Bjelica officially retires from basketball

After seven NBA seasons and several seasons overseas in Austria, Serbia, Spain and Turkey, forward Nemanja Bjelica has officially retired from basketball, he announced Saturday on Instagram.

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A post shared by Nemanja Bjelica (@nemanjabjelica8)

Despite being drafted in 2010 at 22-years-old in the second round by the Washington Wizards, Bjelica began his NBA career five years later with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

He spent three seasons in Minnesota; he also played with the Sacramento Kings, Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors, where he helped them win a title in 2021-22. His best NBA season came in 2019-20 with Sacramento, averaging 11.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 0.9 steals on 48.1 percent shooting and 41.9 percent from 3-point range on 4.4 triple tries per game.

Bjelica, 35, has not played professionally this year. He was a stretch forward for much of his career, attempting 47.2 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc at a 38.4 percent clip. In 449 career games, he averaged 7.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 20.4 minutes per game.

He last appeared with Fenerbahçe Beko in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, where he played just one game in the BSL and seven games in EuroLeague. He combined to play 72 minutes, recording 19 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and one steal on 8-of-22 shooting and 1-of-7 from 3-point range.

He started his professional career with the Arkadia Traiskirchen Lions of the Austrian League in 2007-08. He also played with the Crvena Zvezda (Serbia), Saski Baskonia (Spain) before heading to the NBA. He was the EuroLeague MVP in 2015 after averaging 12.1 points and 8.5 rebounds in 29 games, plus was a Turkish League Champion in 2014.

Best of luck with your future endeavors, Nemanja!

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