Australian big man, Andrew Bogut announced his retirement from professional basketball. He announced his retirement on his Rogue Bogues Podcast Monday. Retirement was something on Bogut’s mind for too long now and thus his decision to decamp wasn’t shocking.
The 7 feet giant started his professional career back in 2005 when the Milwaukee Bucks selected him as the number 1 pick of the 2005 NBA Draft. In his first year, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. He also finished third in votes for the NBA Rookie of the Year award after averaging 9.4 points and 7 rebounds per game in his first year. Bogut went on to increasing and bettering his stats in the upcoming years.
It was in 2009-2010 that was Andrew Bogut’s breakout season. He finished the season averaging 15.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, earning himself the All-NBA Third Team honours, becoming the first Bucks player to do so since Michael Redd in 2003-2004.
His great success as a professional came after a trade taking him to San Francisco playing for the Golden State Warriors. On 13th March 2012, Bogut was brought to the Warriors in a trade-in exchange for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown.
Andrew Bogut remembers that,” I missed the Olympics that year, had all the pressure of Golden State trading a fan-favourite in Monte (Ellis), and getting me.” But Bogut had to undergo many surgeries and injuries throughout his first season with the Warriors.
Bogut signed a three-year contract extension with Golden State, in October of 2013. This set the stage for the big man emerging as an integral part of the Warriors’ dynasty.
In his 8th NBA season, Andrew Bogut won his first NBA Championship with the Warriors in 2015, after defeating LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the finals. After a few years at the Warriors, Bogut even played for the Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers where he didn’t really have a significant impact.
Andrew returned to his homeland to play for the Sydney Kings of the Australian National Basketball League. After the conclusion of the 2018-2019 NBL Regular season, Bogut was James the NBL Most Valuable Player, averaging 11.6 points per game to go along with 329 rebounds, 98 assists and 77 blocked shots. Despite being the MVP, he couldn’t lead the Kings to an NBL championship. The Kings had a third-place finish before losing 2-0 to the Melbourne United in the semi-finals.
Andrew Bogut decided to make a comeback to the NBA after signing with the Golden State Warriors again in 2019. But the Warriors lost to the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 NBA Finals. After signing with the Sydney Kings, yet again for the 2019-2020 NBL season, he decided no to re-sign with them on May 25th, 2020.
Andrew Bogut had an above-average NBA career but had a great career at the NBL. He will definitely go down as one of the greatest Australians to play the sport. He said that he just wanted to decompress, wait till the next year and figure out what he wanted to do. With over $100 million in career earnings, the Australian choosing to enjoy the success of his hard work is only reasonable. He truly has been an inspiration for many kids around the globe.
