Initially between 2019 and 2022 then returning for a second shorter stint in 2023, Michael Carter-Williams was a member of the Orlando Magic. And while he was never quite able to recapture the excellent form that made him the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award winner back in 2014, he nevertheless had some good seasons for the Magic as a defence-first guard across multiple positions.
It seemed as if Carter-Williams’ basketball career had had a rebirth. The days of his perceived high potential were gone, but his seeming acceptance of an overt (and useful) role could extend his career into his mid-to-late 30s, had he wanted it.
Carter-Williams, however, has gone another direction. He has instead stepped away from basketball, and on Thursday, he will make his debut as a professional boxer.
Carter-Williams Called It Quits At 32
After his second stint with the Magic from February to June 2023, Carter-Williams was unable to obtain another full NBA contract, and instead went to the G League. Playing with the Capitanes de la Ciudad de México/Mexico City Capitanes, he appeared in 11 contests and was all over the stat sheet with averages of 12.8 points, 5.9 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game, yet it appears now as though that will be his last basketball gig,
Calling himself “retired” from basketball, Carter-Williams spoke with The Ariel Helwani Show and Yahoo! Sports about how a lifetime of boxing fandom precipitated his decision, and convinced him to enter the ring.
I respect the sport. I’m a big fan. I watch a lot. I’ve got a lot of friends that fight.
– Michael Carter-Williams
Carter-Williams’ debut heavyweight contest will be contested over three two-minute rounds and raise funds for a substance abuse charity. But the charitable nature of the event does not mean a failure to take it seriously. Having played top level sports in his decade in the NBA, Carter-Williams has the competitive spirit, and did not rule out future fights.
I don’t know where it’s going to take me or where it’s going to lead me. I know that there’s an avenue for people, who played professional sports, who enter the boxing ring. There’s a lane there. I don’t know, I’m kind of taking it one step at a time. It’s one of those things I definitely want to keep getting better at.
– Michael Carter-Williams
The Team Sports-To-Boxing Pipeline
Carter-Williams is not the first to have retired from top-level career sports in pursuit of a career in combat sports.
Be in the pursuit of genuine competition, or just for a one-off (often charity) event, other basketball players to have done so include former New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson (who once lost to Jake Paul on a Mike Tyson undercard), former Utah Jazz guard Deron Williams (who beat former San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore in a 2021 exhibition match as a precursor to Gore’s short-lived professional boxing career), former Detroit Pistons big Darko Milicic (who had a short-lived professional kickboxing career in his native Serbia shortly after the end of his NBA career) and former Atlanta Hawks centre Tom Payne (who fought in four professional fights after his NBA career was ended due to incarceration).
From other sports, former England cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff experimented with boxing between the end of his cricket career and the start of his new life as a television presenter. Former Major League Baseball All-Star Jose Canseco has fought multiple exhibitions, albeit not especially well, while former Premier League footballer Curtis Woodhouse actually achieved some notable success, becoming the British light-welterweight champion at one point in a boxing career that saw him record 22 victories.
Few go the other way. The fact that boxing legend Manny Pacquiao was able to claim a “professional” basketball career in his native Philippines was aided by the fact that he owned the team – a minor league team, at that – and although Roy Jones Jr did play some basketball in the 1990s, it was in the now-defunct USBL.
Carter-Williams, though, does not seek to set a trend. Instead, he seeks only to “scratch the itch”. In his own words, “I’ve been competing my whole life, and that’s something I want to do. I want to continue to compete.” This week, in a new way, he will do just that.
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