Amid all the fun and excitement surrounding the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first-ever NBA championship victory and a Most Valuable Player award win for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander comes news out of Spain of the retirement of one of the players that got them to this point, and helped them transition from one era to the next.
After 15 years as a professional basketball player, Spanish national team guard Alejandro “Alex” Abrines has followed through on something that has been rumored for a while, and has retired from basketball at the age of 33. Most recently with Barcelona, Abrines announced the decision in a post to his Instagram channel, ending a six-year run with the team.
Helped The Thunder In A Transitional Period
Abrines was a member of the Thunder from 2016 to 2019. He initially came to the NBA as a second-round pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, and spent three more years in his homeland before signing with the Thunder.
Across those three seasons, Abrines averaged 5.3 points per game in 174 regular season contests, and served a role as an out-and-out specialist. Abrines was an outside shooter who sought to be little else than that, and his career 36.8% three-point percentage in his NBA career spoke to both his ability to hit outside shots, and his nous to get open for them.
In his three seasons, the Thunder won 47, 48 and 49 games respectively. Joining the same month that Kevin Durant sensationally left for the Golden State Warriors, Abrines helped raise the team’s floor for those first two KD-less seasons, allowing the Thunder to stay in the playoff picture and stay relevant, which in turn helped them to acquire Paul George, which in turn led to them acquiring Shai. None will confuse Abrines for being the reason why that chain of events happened, but he helped.
Abrines Felt More Comfortable In Spain
Abrines’s NBA career ended somewhat earlier than it might have done, at his discretion.
The 2018-19 season, his third in the NBA, was not a good one. Abrines’s impact on the court diminished, and he eventually stepped away from the team for several weeks for what was at the timed said to “personal reasons”. Abrines would later clarify that those reasons were a temporary loss of love for the game, and he requested his release to return to Spain and find his way again.
It worked. Six seasons back with Barcelona – the team with whom he spent the four seasons immediately prior to his NBA stint, and with whom he was voted the 2016 EuroLeague Rising Star – were to follow, and Abrines got his game back. He would play 386 games with Barca over those six seasons, found his touch, and seemed more at ease.
In his retirement statement, Abrines cited his desire to spend more time with his family and children “after an intense professional life”. Having made his name on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and in the two best basketball leagues that the world has to offer, Abrines fulfilled a role and did his job on the court. Now, the job of fatherhood awaits.
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