After spending nine years in the NBA, forward Chandler Parsons officially announced his retirement from the league on his Instagram account Tuesday morning. Parsons spent time playing for the Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, and Houston Rockets. He has career averages of 12.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists, and was known for his 3-point shooting as he knocked down shots at a 37.3 percent clip over his career. 

“It’s been a crazy last couple years and has put a lot of things in perspective,” Parsons wrote on his Instagram account. “I’ve had so many ups and downs and thankful for every single one of them. My entire life all I wanted to be was an NBA player. I didn’t even realize, or think what came with that, I just wanted to compete and play basketball at the highest level. I can proudly say, I did that!”

Parsons was a second-round draft pick out of the University of Florida where he had a standout college career that ended with him being named SEC Player of the Year in his senior season. In his first year in the NBA, he earned All-Rookie honors during the 2011-12 season and was an integral piece on Houston’s team in his final two years with the team. In the 2014 playoffs, Parsons averaged 19.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists alongside James Harden and Dwight Howard in a nail-biting first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Parsons’ performance that season earned him a huge contract with the Dallas Mavericks the following season as a restricted free agent. However, he experienced the most success with the Rockets at the start of his career, largely due to injuries. After playing in over 60 games in each of his first five years in the league, Parsons never played more than 40 games in the final four years of his career. He suffered a torn meniscus after the 2015-16 season, which limited him to just 34 games in his first season with the Memphis Grizzlies. Then torn knee cartilage cut his season short the following year, and the year after that it dwindled down to 25 games.

In Parsons’ final season in the league (2019-20), he played in just five games for the Atlanta Hawks due to various injuries. Then a car accident in which Parsons suffered multiple severe injuries derailed his comeback attempt. Parsons was leaving Hawks practice back in 2020 when a drunk driver caused the three-car accident. 

The law firm that represented Parsons in the accident said the NBA forward suffered “potentially career-ending injuries” at the time, including a “traumatic brain injury, disc herniation, and a torn labrum.” The driver who caused the accident was arrested and charged with DUI. Since then, Parsons has reportedly settled for a “substantial amount” from the lawsuit against the driver in the car accident, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Though Parsons considered a comeback to the NBA after the accident, he said in November 2021 that he was still recovering from the car accident from the year prior. With his retirement announcement Tuesday morning, he’s made it official that he won’t be coming back to the league.

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Source: https://bit.ly/33tibZL