After an 18-year NBA career, French forward Nicolas Batum announced his retirement.
This was no surprise, Batum had hinted at retirement for a couple of years and said outright before last season that it would likely be his last. In July, the Clippers declined the team option to bring him back next season.
The No. 25 pick of the Houston Rockets back in 2008, he was traded on draft night to the Portland Trail Blazers, where he played the first seven years of his career. He would go on to play for Charlotte, then rebounded his career when he came to the Clippers in 2020. He would play most of his final six seasons with the Clippers, except for 57 games with Philadelphia in 2023-24.
At every one of those stops he was a fan and media favorite, one of the most genuine, easy-to-talk-to guys in the league. On and off the court, he was a pro’s pro.
He will be remembered in his native France for an impressive career with the French national team, winning two silver medals in 2020 and 2024 — in 2020, he had a famed game-saving block against Slovenia, which sent France to face the USA for the gold.
During his career of 1,205 regular season NBA games, he averaged 9.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, and was a career 37.1% shooter from 3. He was the kind of player coaches loved because he was a versatile two-way player, understood his role, played well within it, and had a high basketball IQ — he rarely made mistakes. His scoring peak was averaging 15.1 points per game in Charlotte in 2016-17, and through those first seven years in Portland he averaged 11.2 points per game.
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