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Ex-Knick and NBA champion P.J. Tucker retires after 19 seasons
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- Ex-Knick and NBA champion P.J. Tucker retires after 19 seasons
PJ Tucker
Former Knick and NBA veteran P.J. Tucker announced his retirement on Thursday, hanging up his sneakers after a professional basketball career that spanned parts of two decades.
Tucker, 41, played three games for the Knicks during his final season in the NBA last year, and his career included time with the Raptors, Suns, Rockets, Bucks, Heat, 76ers and Clippers .
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"[Twenty] years being my job but 40 plus years of not being able to fathom doing anything other than it. So here's to retiring from the NBA… because I will NEVER stop ballin," he wrote on Instagram Thursday alongside a carousel of photos from across his career in the league.
New York Knicks forward P.J. Tucker shakes hands with New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges as he checks into a playoff game last season. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
The pinnacle of Tucker's NBA career came in 2021 as part of the Bucks' championship-winning team.
He was dealt from the Rockets to the Buckets before the trade deadline and appeared in 20 regular season games and another 23 in the playoffs.
Tucker averaged 4.3 points in 29.6 minutes per game during the postseason.
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He was originally selected by the Raptors with the 35th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft after playing his college basketball at Texas, but failed to earn much playing time and eventually found himself in the G League.
P.J. Tucker of the Milwaukee Bucks celebrates with the Larry O'Brien Trophy during their Victory Parade & Rally of the 2021 NBA Finals on July 22, 2021 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NBAE via Getty Images
The Raptors waived him in late March of his rookie season, and Tucker failed to find another NBA team to play for — kicking off a five-year run of playing overseas in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy and Germany.
Tucker found his way back to the NBA in 2012 with the Suns.
Over the course of his career, Tucker played in 886 NBA games and averaged 6.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 0.3 blocks per game.
