On Thursday evening, Lori Fullbright of Oklahoman news station News On 6 was the first to report the news former Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kyle Singler had been arrested that morning in Tulsa.
Singler – who last featured in the NBA with the Thunder back in the 2017-18 season – was reportedly arrested in connection with a domestic disturbance. A later report from another news station, KFOR, stated that the incident involved Singler’s live-in girlfriend, who according to the allegations was assaulted by Singler.
Singler’s NBA Career
Singler, 37, was drafted with the third pick of the second round of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, following a standout collegiate career at Duke. After spending his rookie year in Spain due to the uncertainty surrounding the NBA lockout, Singler signed with the Pistons in the summer of 2012, and in February 2015 was traded to the Thunder as a part of the wider Kendrick Perkins/Reggie Jackson trade, where he played the majority of his NBA career.
Singler’s time in Oklahoma City coincided with the teamâs first competitive peak, when the franchise regularly reached the postseason and competed among the Western Conference elite. In Detroit, he was a useful role player with some upside, averaging 8.7 points and 3.5 rebounds across 218 career games with the Pistons.
Singler’s most productive season came in 2013â14, when he appeared in all 82 games and shot over 40 percent from three-point range. Though limited athletically, defensively and with the ball in his hands compared to some of his peers, he briefly carved out a role through his combination of size, perimeter shooting and IQ.
It did however end quite quickly. Despite receiving a sizeable five-year contract to re-sign with the Thunder in the summer of 2015, Singler never played up to it. He managed only 138 regular season games with the team, with greatly diminished numbers, and was waived with two years of the deal still left to run.
Life After The Thunder
After departing Oklahoma City in 2018, Singler again played briefly in Spain for a season and a quarter, before retiring from professional basketball. His last professional appearance came in October 2019, in a Basketball Champions League qualifier for Iberostar Tenerife.
In the years that followed, Singler initially kept a relatively low profile. However, he drew renewed attention last winter for a series of erratic social media posts that drew public notice and speculation about his personal circumstances. The posts, which were later deleted, featured messages spoken by a usually-shirtless Singler about his time in the NBA, apparent frustrations with the basketball world, and issues in his personal life.
Singler’s Instagram videos drew widespread concern, as they contained a series of rambled statements in which, among other things, Singler said he had “gone through hell for the last 10-plus years”. Singler would further state that he had “been mistreated and abused, neglected, made into a mental example”, and that he would “fear for my life every day”. No further public explanation was given, and Singer subsequently deactivated his accounts.
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