One of the best sixth men in NBA history has called it quits.
Lou Williams, a three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year award winner, announced in an Instagram video on Sunday that he is retiring after 17 NBA seasons.
“Thank you all,” the 36-year-old Williams wrote in a caption with the video. “Happy Fathers Day. Well Done, Underground. Farewell.”
Williams, who last played with the Hawks during the 2021-22 season, was the second-to-last player drafted directly out of high school as the eligibility rules changed following the 2005 NBA Draft.
The 6-foot scoring guard was selected No. 45 overall by the 76ers out of South Gwinnett High School in Georgia, and his retirement means LeBron James is the only prep-to-pro player left in the league.
Williams had the distinction as the best Sixth Man in the league during his peak and retires with the most points scored off the bench in NBA history.
Williams is one of two players to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award three different times — the other being Jamal Crawford — having won the award in 2015, 2018 and 2019.
Williams scored over 15,000 career points in 1,123 regular-season games, starting just 122 of them, and had runs with the Sixers, Hawks, Raptors, Lakers, Rockets, Clippers and Hawks again in his final NBA season during 2021-22.
His best statistical seasons came when he won consecutive Sixth Man of the Year awards in 2018 and ’19.
He averaged 22.6 points and 5.3 assists per game during the 2017-18 season, and the next year he averaged 20 points and 5.4 assists.