Former NBA champion Andrew Bogut announces retirement from professional basketball

Andrew Bogut is calling quits on his bid for an Olympic medal and has decided to retire after 15 years in professional basketball. The 36-year-old Australian had earlier cited back and ankle injuries, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent postponement of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as potential reasons to retire. On Tuesday he made it official. Bogut, a 2005 No. 1 draft pick by Milwaukee and who won an NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors in 2015, had been planning to retire after playing for Australia at the Tokyo Games. Those games have been delayed until July 2021. “I just can’t physically and mentally get to 2021 with the way the body has been,” Bogut said on his “Rogue Bogues” podcast. “I mean, I could, on a lot of painkillers and with a lot of physical and mental anguish, but it’s just not worth it at this point in my career.” Bogut played for Sydney in the National Basketball League the past two seasons, winning the NBL’s MVP in 2019 and leading the Kings to a grand final last season. “The last two years have been a real challenge for me just to get out of bed in the morning some days, let alone go to a training session or a game,” Bogut said. “The body, probably from 2018 onwards, was hanging by a thread. “It was real challenging and from the 2019-20 season that thread was completely frayed and in little pieces. It was real frustrating for me.” Bogut played a key role in Australia’s fourth-place finish at last year’s World Cup in China and has been on the Australian team’s roster since the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Melbourne-born Bogut was named The Associated Press college basketball player of the year in 2005 while playing for Utah, just before being chosen No. 1 in the NBA draft by the Bucks.