PONT-L'ÉVÊQUE — Nicolas Batum announced his retirement from the NBA after 18 seasons on Monday, Sept. 21, closing a career defined by versatility and respect. The 37-year-old wing shared the news in a nearly 10-minute video posted to his Instagram account, filmed at Gym Even in Pont-l'Évêque, France — the same gym where he said he first started playing basketball exactly 35 years ago to the day on Sept. 21, 1991, when he was two-and-a-half years old.
Batum brought his son, Ayden, with him for the moment on the wooden bleachers. "You don't want me to retire?" Batum asked Ayden. "No," he said with a sense of finality. "It's over." Batum later told his son, "When you've played as much basketball as I have, you have to know when to stop," adding, "You spend 20, 25 years playing basketball, that's what you know yourself as. Right now, you practice all the time. That was my life, too. I practiced all the time. That's probably what I'll miss; the competition, the games. It's the life you've known for 25 years. I'll miss it, but that's not what I'm looking for anymore."
The Frenchman's stat sheet never popped, and he was never an All-Star, but his peers revered him in every locker room. At 6-7 with a 7-1 wingspan, Batum spaced the floor with shooting and playmaking while defending multiple positions. He was a crucial role player for the Portland Trail Blazers, who made the playoffs in six of his seven seasons there, before he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets in 2015 for five seasons. He signed with the Los Angeles Clippers in December 2020 on the minimum and spent the final six years of his career there — save for a brief detour to the Philadelphia 76ers five games into the 2023-24 season as part of the James Harden trade — returning to L.A. the following summer on a two-year, $9.6 million deal.
In Los Angeles, Batum shot 40.3% from three, opening the floor for star teammates Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Harden, and was part of the Clippers' historic 2020-21 playoff run to the Western Conference Finals for the first and only time in franchise history. His leadership was featured prominently in the Netflix documentary "Court of Gold" chronicling the 2024 Paris Olympics basketball tournament, where Batum served as captain for Les Bleus in his final Olympics as France attempted to dethrone the United States for gold on home soil, delivering fiery halftime speeches and mentoring Victor Wembanyama.
As he explained in the video, Batum is ready for what's next after 25 years of choosing the game. He said he is done sacrificing and missing moments in Ayden's life, now choosing his life outside basketball.