Veteran NBA forward Bojan Bogdanović has announced his retirement, concluding a career that spanned a decade. The 6-foot-7 sharpshooter, whose last NBA team was the New York Knicks in 2024, stated that persistent injury problems were the primary reason for his decision to step away from basketball.
`Sometimes in life, you don’t choose the moment. The moment chooses you,` Bogdanović wrote in a letter posted on social media. `After 14 months of battling a foot injury, undergoing two surgeries, and making countless efforts to return to the court, the time has arrived to close this chapter.`
The 36-year-old Bogdanović was widely recognized for his skilled shooting and versatile scoring ability when healthy. Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and representing Croatia internationally, he was originally the 31st pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat, though he didn`t make his NBA debut until 2014 with the Brooklyn Nets.
During his ten years in the league, Bogdanović played for six different teams: the Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers, Utah Jazz, Detroit Pistons, and New York Knicks. Known for his consistent shooting form and effective offensive performance, he concluded his career averaging 15.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists across 719 regular season games, with shooting percentages of 39.4% from beyond the arc and 46.0% overall.
He had one of his most successful seasons in 2019-20 with the Utah Jazz, where he averaged 20.2 points per game and cemented his status as one of the NBA`s top stretch forwards. He remained with the Jazz for the subsequent two seasons, consistently averaging over 17 points.
In the 2022-23 season with the Detroit Pistons, Bogdanović achieved a career-high scoring average of 21.6 points over 59 games, shooting an impressive 41.1% from three-point range.
His final stop in the NBA was with the New York Knicks, joining them in February 2024 via a trade from Detroit. Unfortunately, his participation in the postseason was restricted because of the persistent foot problems that had troubled him for over a year.
Despite his career being cut short by injuries, Bogdanović concludes his time in the NBA recognized as one of the most consistent and respected European scorers of the last ten years.
Jasper Hawthorne