An NBA veteran retired from basketball.
Clippers Star Had Two Words After Retirement News on Monday originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
NBA champion Marco Belinelli, a 13-year veteran, has been out of the league since 2020. He spent the 2019-20 season with the San Antonio Spurs, his second stint with the franchise. Belinelli then took his talents to Virtus Segafredo Bologna of Lega Basket Serie A UnipolSai (h/t Basketball Reference).
On Monday, Belinelli announced his retirement from basketball. The 39-year-old is officially calling it a career after more than two decades as a professional.
"I put my heart into it," he captioned his Instagram post (translated to English). "Every bits of myself. Every single day. Basketball gave me everything ... and i gave it all to her. It's never easy to say goodbye. But it's the time."
Bogdan Bogdanovic Reacts to Marco Belinelli's Announcement
Belinelli received over 1,500 comments in the first two hours after his retirement announcement was posted. Among those to react was LA Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, who delivered a two-word message to Belinelli.
"Grande leggenda!!" Bogdan wrote.
While the two were never teammates, Bogdanovic and Belinelli have competed against one another on the international stage. That includes the 2017 EuroBasket quarterfinals in which Bogdanovic and Serbia took down Belinelli and Italy 83-67. The two were the leading scorers for their respective teams in that contest. Bogdanovic scored 22 points, and Belinelli poured in 18 (h/t NBA.com).
Marco Belinelli Leaves Behind A Basketball Legacy
An NBA champion with the Spurs in 2014, Belinelli averaged 9.7 points and converted on 37.6% of his 3-point attempts in 860 career games. In his 13 NBA seasons, Belinelli spent time with the Golden State Warriors, Toronto Raptors, New Orleans Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Spurs (twice), Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers.
While he had a strong NBA career, Belinelli's basketball legacy may best be defined by his international play. Appearing in multiple EuroBasket tournaments, Belinelli also won the Lega Basket Serie A UnipolSai MVP award.
While he was a role player at the NBA level, Belinelli was well-respected.
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown recently went on record saying: "Marco Belinelli used to light me up, bro. He just used to never stop moving and I used to have to chase him around, the system we had. I used to chase Marco Belinelli around all these different screens, and like, he’s not even getting the ball."
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: Basketball
