Amid all the NBA free agency rumors and announcements comes news of one candidate taking himself out of the running.
Bojan Bogdanovic, a ten-year NBA veteran, today announced his retirement from professional basketball via an Instagram post. The 36-year-old 6’7 Croatian wing was most recently a member of the Brooklyn Nets, but was waived back in February after undergoing season-ending foot surgery.
It now appears as though that injury has ended not just his season, but also his career.
Bogdanovic’s Brooklyn Bookends
Although he did not play in the 2024-25 season due to the injury, Bogdanovic nonetheless bookended his NBA career with this second stint in Brooklyn, as the Nets were also the first NBA franchise that he played for.
Drafted 31st overall all the way back in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat , the Nets acquired Bogdanovic’s rights from the Minnesota Timberwolves (to whom he had been dealt by the Heat in his first of two draft night trades), but did not sign him for another three years. Opting instead to extend his career in his home continent for a bit longer, Bogdanovic – aided by the 161-day NBA lockout of that summer that sent many players in the direction of the EuroLeague and/or Europe – decided to spend an additional three years in Turkey with Fenerbahce, before joining the Nets on a three-year, $10 million contract in the summer of 2014.
The Nets had reacquired Bogdanovic as a part of the Mikal Bridges trade with the New York Knicks during last summer’s free agency window. Taking him on along with Mamadi Diakite and Shake Milton , the Nets yielded a haul of five first-round picks , a right to swap another and a bonus second-round pick, a veritable trove of draft capital that formed the basis of how they were able to make an unprecedented five first-round picks in this year’s draft alone.
Bogdanovic was the salary-filler in the Bridges deal, and was not expected to contribute much for the Nets on the court in his second stint. As it was, though, the injury meant he never played at all. Nevertheless, before injuries ended his career, he put in ten solid seasons of NBA production, in many different places.
A Perfectly Solid Career
Alongside his time in Brooklyn and his stint with the Knicks – who had acquired him in February 2024 as a deadline-day pick-up – Bogdanovic also spent time with the Detroit Pistons , Indiana Pacers , Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards . He played for six teams in ten seasons, and appeared in the postseason with five of them, very much fitting the bill as a gun-for-hire.
In his 11 NBA seasons, the man affectionately known as Bogey never averaged less than double figures in scoring average in any season after his rookie year. His career peaked with a 21.6 points per game average with the Pistons in 2022-23, the second time he cracked the 20ppg barrier, and he finished ninth in the Sixth Man of the Year vote the following season, split between Detroit and New York.
For his career, Bogdanovic retires with 719 regular season games played, and a 15.6 points per game scoring average in that time, buoyed by a 39.4% career three-point shooting strong. With Bojan’s retirement, the NBA is now down to only one Bogdanovic – and only three Croatians .
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