Russell Westbrook announces NBA retirement after 18 seasons - ESPN

Russell Westbrook, who played 18 NBA seasons with seven teams, announced his retirement on social media on Wednesday.

«Sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end,» the 37-year-old Westbrook wrote on his post, which contained a video of his career narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan. «You had to be there. And now it's over.»

Westbrook had offers this offseason with the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards but chose to step away from the game on his own terms, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania, ending one of the most statistically robust careers in league history.

After a two-year college career at UCLA, Westbrook was selected No. 4 in the 2008 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, but he never played a game in the city. The franchise moved to Oklahoma City that summer, and Westbrook quickly emerged into a pillar for what would soon become a perennial contender.

Westbrook spent the bulk of his career — 11 seasons — with the Thunder, teaming with Kevin Durant and James Harden to lead the Thunder to a Western Conference title in 2012 before losing to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. He scored 43 points in Game 4 of that series at only 23 years old. He remains the Thunder's career leader in scoring, assists, rebounds and steals.

Due to ill-timed injuries and personnel changes, that famed Thunder team never made it back to the mountaintop. Harden was traded before the 2012-13 season. Westbrook had a meniscus tear in the first round of the 2013 playoffs. Durant had a foot fracture that ended their 2015 run. OKC lost in a dramatic seven-game series to the 73-win Golden State Warriors in the 2016 playoffs, and Durant departed for the Warriors that ensuing summer.

But Westbrook remained, signing an