At age of 34, NBA veteran David Lee has decided it is time to retire from basketball. He spent 12 seasons in the league, playing for the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs. Lee announced his decision via Instagram post.
In his interview for 95.7 The Game, Lee explained his decision saying although he wanted to play for two more years, he felt his options were limited.
“I kind of had a little bit more of a strict criteria coming into this offseason.” –said Lee. “At the most I wanted to play another two years, and as you know — I had another injury last season, so a lot of the summer was spent rehabbing. And with the NBA changing right now, the Warriors have caused a lot of teams in the league to say either we’re gonna try to put as many guys on one team as possible to try to compete with the Warriors, or we’re gonna go super young. So it did limit my options.“
Lee added that he did receive some offers from the NBA, but didn’t find a suitable situation for himself.
The New York Knicks selected Lee with the 30th overall in the 2005 NBA draft. Being mostly a bench player for the Knicks in his first three seasons, he started getting a more prominent role in the 2008–09 season. In the following year, fifth with the Knicks, Lee had the best season of his career, averaging more than 20 points and 11 rebounds per game. After becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2010, he joined the Golden State Warriors via sign and trade.
He was one of the key players for the Warriors in his first 4 seasons, but he suffered an injury in 2014 which sidelined him for 25 games. Although he recovered successfully, he didn’t manage to reclaim his place in the starting five from Draymond Green. Lee was traded in the offseason and never managed to get his career back on the right track.
