Nicolas Batum retires after 18 NBA seasons
Nicolas Batum announced his retirement from the NBA on September 21, 2026, after 18 seasons. The 37-year-old made his announcement at Gym Even in Pont-l'Évêque, France, the gym where he began playing basketball 35 years prior, accompanied by his son.
Nicolas Batum announced his retirement from the NBA on Monday, September 21, 2026, after 18 seasons. The 37-year-old announced the decision in a nearly 10-minute video posted to his Instagram account.
Batum made his announcement at Gym Even in Pont-l'Évêque, France, the same gym where he started playing basketball exactly 35 years earlier on September 21, 1991, when he was two and a half years old. He brought his son, Ayden, with him for the announcement.
At 6-foot-7 with a 7-foot-1 wingspan, Batum spent seven seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers and made the playoffs in six of those years. The Blazers traded him to the Charlotte Hornets in 2015, where he spent the next five seasons. Batum signed with the Los Angeles Clippers in December 2020 on the minimum contract and remained with the team for six years, though a brief trade to Philadelphia occurred five games into the 2023-24 season as part of the James Harden deal. He returned to Los Angeles the following summer on a two-year, $9.6 million deal.
During his time with the Clippers, Batum shot 40.3% from three-point range. He was part of the franchise's 2020-21 playoff run in which Los Angeles reached the Western Conference Finals for the first and only time in the team's history. Batum served as captain for the French national team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, his final Olympic appearance. He was featured in the Netflix documentary "Court of Gold," which chronicled the 2024 Paris Olympics basketball tournament.
Batum was never selected as an All-Star during his 18 seasons. According to Yahoo Sports, he had "undeniable respect from his peers in every locker room" throughout his career.
Batum said he spent 20 to 25 years playing basketball and is now choosing his life outside of the sport.
Nicolas Batum, an 18-year NBA veteran and key role player on the Clippers' 2020-21 Western Conference Finals team, retired at age 37 after representing France at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Batum exits after capturing a significant playoff run with the Clippers and representing France on its Olympic stage, ending a career defined by role-player consistency and locker-room presence rather than individual accolades.
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