A former draft pick by the Golden State Warriors and champion with the San Antonio Spurs made a massive decision regarding his basketball career on Monday.
Ex-Warriors Draft Pick, Spurs Champion Makes Career Decision on Monday originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
As the NBA offseason has entered the middle of August, things have begun to quiet down as teams are now preparing for the start of training camp and the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
One of those teams is the Golden State Warriors as they continue to deal with the situation surrounding restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga that has caused them to miss out on multiple free agent targets this summer.
While the Warriors are trying to put an end to the ongoing saga between them and Kuminga to begin upgrading their roster around their star trio of Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, it was one of their former players who was in the news on Monday.
Marco Belinelli announces his retirement on Monday
On Monday, former Warriors guard Marco Belinelli took to Instagram where he announced his retirement from professional basketball.
This is a massive announcement by Belinelli as the 39-year-old Italian guard has officially ended his basketball career after 23 years.
Of course, the Warriors selected Belinelli 18th overall in the 2007 NBA Draft and he played his first two NBA seasons in Golden State before being traded to the Toronto Raptors in 2009.
Most of Belinelli’s success over his 13 seasons in the NBA took place with the San Antonio Spurs where he played for four seasons, including winning his only NBA championship in 2014.
Belinelli also won the NBA Three-Point Contest in 2014, becoming the only player from Italy to win the event in NBA history.
The sharpshooting guard finished his 13-year NBA career in 2020 with the Spurs and he ended his career averaging 9.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while shooting 42.4% from the field and 37.6% from three.
The 39-year-old guard then returned to Italy where he would play for another five seasons before announcing his retirement on Monday.
Belinelli now ends his basketball career with an NBA title in 2014, a EuroCup championship in 2022, three Lega Serie A championships and an Italian Supercup winner three times.
Italian basketball legend Marco Belinelli retires after 23 years 🫡🇮🇹
— BasketNews (@BasketNews_com) August 18, 2025
🏆 NBA Champion (2014)
🏆 NBA Three-Point Contest Winner (2014)
🏆 EuroCup Champion (2022)
🏆 Lega Serie A Champion (2005,2021,2025)
🏆 Italian Supercup Winner (2005,2021,2022,2023)
🏆 Italian Supercup MVP… pic.twitter.com/edfi4W5LSH
He was also named the Italian Supercup MVP in 2005 and the Lega Seria A MVP in 2024.
Belinelli is widely regarded as arguably the best Italian player in NBA history and he also starred in his home country during an impressive 23-year basketball career.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: Basketball
