Former Celtics Forward Announces Retirement After 11 NBA Seasons

Mike Muscala’s winding NBA journey took him to the Boston Celtics for a brief stint during the 2022-23 season.

But the former Celtics forward’s career has now reached the end of the road.

Muscala, 33, told The Oklahoman’s Joel Lorenzi on Saturday that he is retiring from professional basketball after 11 NBA seasons, which included playing for seven different teams.

“Grateful for it all,” Muscala texted Lorenzi.

Muscala’s father told Lorenzi that Muscala, who averaged 5.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in his career, intends to head back to school to pursue a master’s degree in sports management and wants to enter basketball coaching or administration in his post-NBA career.

Muscala was a trade deadline acquisition for the Celtics in February 2023. Boston sent Justin Jackson and two second-round picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder to obtain the floor-spacing big man. Muscala played just 20 games with the Celtics in which he totaled 5.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting 38.5% from 3-point range.

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The Celtics then traded the Bucknell product in a deal that reshaped their roster for this past season. Muscala was in the three-team trade that sent him to the Washington Wizards alongside Danilo Gallinari and Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies with Boston getting Kristaps Porzingis in return.

Muscala’s final NBA season saw him play for the Wizards, Thunder and Detroit Pistons. The Wizards packaged Muscala and Gallinari in a January trade to the Pistons, who waived the 2013 second-round pick just over a month later after 13 games.

That allowed Muscala to return to the Thunder, where he previously played three-plus seasons of his career — the only other team he spent more time with was the Atlanta Hawks.

Muscala played 16 games with the Thunder to put a bow on his career and he seemed to associate himself with that organization more than any other he played for in the NBA.

“It means a lot,” Muscala told reporters in May about being back with the Thunder. “I went through a lot in my life when I was here, just the city, the fans, the way that they support the team, what the team means to the community, those are things that I feel like I can relate to.

“I’ll always be a Thunder fan no matter what happens in my life.”