Nazr Mohammed signs with Thunder for rest of season
The Oklahoma City Thunder announced on Saturday that they have signed former University of Kentucky star Nazr Mohammed for the rest of the season. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 17-year NBA veteran previously played for Oklahoma City during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, averaging 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 87 games. He was a part of the Oklahoma City team that reached the NBA Finals in 2012.
“It’s official. ‘I’m back,’” Mohammed said in a blog post at SportsBlog.com. “I’ve always wanted to say that … like I’m MJ or something LOL. I’m officially back in an NBA jersey, and I could not be more excited for this opportunity.”
Mohammed, who is 38, has played for seven other teams — Chicago, Charlotte, Atlanta, San Antonio, Philadelphia, New York and Detroit — and has averaged 5.8 points and 4.7 rebounds during his career.
He won an NBA championship as a starter for the Spurs in 2005. He averaged 7.1 points, 6.7 rebounds during that year’s playoffs.
Mohammed said he has been in “semi-retirement.”
“A 37-year-old professional athlete doesn’t really retire; we just transition to our next careers,” Mohammed wrote on his blog. “Being that in pro sports, most of us actually ‘get retired,’ either because the phone is no longer ringing for your services or you’re no longer able to accept playing for just any team.”
Mohammed had been close to ending his basketball career.
“I was days away from turning “semi-retirement” into full retirement when I received word from Sam Presti that they had interest in me returning to OKC as a player,” Mohammed wrote. “That quickly changed the course of my plans and forced me to do some real soul-searching to see if this was something my family and I wanted. … Once I got the green light from my family, it was a fairly easy decision to make, given that I’ve played in OKC before.”
Mohammed, who had wanted to play at least one more season, said he’s glad he’ll have the chance to go out on his own terms, “to have true closure with the game — as opposed to it just ending. … Now I have the chance to get some of those “last” moments and really soak it in. I think I’m going to be more aware of living in the moment. I won’t save anything, even if that means I’m only going out there for a minute during a blowout. I realize how important it is to leave it all out there on the court, enjoy it and relish in the experience. I’m going in with a ‘this is it’ mindset. There is no next year as far as basketball for me.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Nazr Mohammed signs with Thunder for rest of season."