David West has won multiple NBA championships and has been selected as an All-Star a couple of times. On Thursday. The 15-year veteran announced he is done playing in the league.
West, 38, was selected 18th by the New Orleans Hornets in the historic 2003 NBA draft. His career point total (14,034) marks him as the fifth-highest scorer from that draft class. He ends his career trailing LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.
As a member of the Hornets, he was selected to the All-Star team twice. In his six-season span of with New Orleans, West averaged 19.2 points and 8.0 rebounds.
West played for four teams in his career (New Orleans, Indiana, San Antonio, Golden State) and finished with career averages of 13.6 points and 6.4 rebounds.
In his two-years with the Golden State Warriors, West captured two NBA championships. In addition, in January, West played in his 1,000th career regular-season game.
Golden State’s head coach Steve Kerr spoke Thursday about the impact West had while he was a member of the Warriors:
“David was a consummate professional throughout his entire career and was a huge presence in our locker room the last two years,” Kerr said. “The respect that he commanded was palpable every single day he walked in the door, and the leadership that he provided to our team was critical to our success.”
Although this is the end West’s playing career, he sees the glass as half full. He shared how he is looking forward to making an impact off the court in his post-NBA career.
“I don’t feel like this is the pinnacle of my existence,” West said in January. “I’ve been fortunate to have a good professional basketball career, but I’ll be under 40 years old when this is all said and done with, and I hopefully got another 40-plus years of life left. That’s another opportunity to ascend to another realm and be great at something else. That’s sort of how I look at life.
“I don’t look at this as this is it for me, and, I think for a lot of people, that’s their mindset. I’ve invested in myself, meaning I can move into many different fields and have an understanding of many different fields.”
