Lou Williams, a three-time winner of the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award, announced his retirement from the NBA on Sunday in an Instagram video. Williams has played in 17 NBA seasons.
“Thank you all,” the 36-year-old Williams wrote in the video’s caption. Williams was the second-last player drafted directly out of high school when eligibility rules changed after the 2005 NBA Draft. He last played for the Hawks in 2021-22.
The scoring guard who stands 6 feet was picked No. LeBron James, who was drafted 45th overall by the 76ers and attended South Gwinnett High School in Georgia, has retired, leaving the league without a prep-to-pro player.
Williams retired with the most points scored off the bench in NBA history, when he was considered the league’s best Sixth Man.
Williams is one of only two players, along with Jamal Crawford, who has won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award three times: in 2015, 2018 and 2019.
Williams had runs with the Sixers, Hawks, Raptors, Lakers, Rockets, Clippers, and Hawks again in his final NBA season in 2021-22. He averaged 22.6 points and 5.3 assists per game during the 2017-18 season, and the following year, he averaged 20 points and 5.4 assists. Williams scored over 15,000 career points in 1,123 regular-season games, starting only 122 of them.
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