NBA sixth-man specialist Lou Williams retires at age 36

According to Callie Lawson-Freeman of Yahoo! Sports on Sunday, veteran National Basketball Association guard Lou Williams of Memphis, Tennessee retired on Sunday at the age of 36. Williams played 17 seasons in the NBA from 2005 to 2022. He did not play this past season.

Williams was with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2005 to 2012, the Atlanta Hawks from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2021 to 2022, the Toronto Raptors from 2014 to 2015, the Los Angeles Lakers from 2015 to 2017, the Houston Rockets in 2017, and the Los Angeles Clippers from 2017 to 2021. When Williams was traded from the Clippers to the Hawks in 2021, he was ranked as the sixth best player dealt at the deadline.

In 1123 regular season games, Williams averaged 13.9 points per game, 3.4 assists per game, and 2.2 rebounds per game. He had a field goal percentage of .419, three-point percentage of .351 and a free throw percentage of .842.

Three times Williams was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year. That is tied for the most ever alongside Jamal Crawford of Seattle, Washington, who was honoured while with the Hawks in 2009-10, and with the Clippers in 2013-14, and 2015-16.

The first time he received the Sixth Man of the Year Award was with the Raptors in 2014-15. That year he averaged 15.5 points, 2.1 assists per game, 1.9 rebounds per game, and 1.1 steals per game. Williams had a field goal percentage of .404, three-point percentage of .340, and a free throw percentage of .861. He remains the only Raptors player to win the award, and won the award without a single start in 80 games.

Like Crawford, Williams won the Sixth Man award twice with the Clippers. The first time in 2017-18, and the second time in 2018-19. In 2017-18, Williams averaged a career-high 22.6 points per game, 5.3 assists per game, 2.5 rebounds per game, and 1.1 steals per game. He had a field goal percentage of .435, three-point percentage of .359, and a free throw percentage of .880. In 2018-19, Williams averaged 20 points per game, 5.4 assists per game, and three rebounds per game. He had a field goal percentage of .425, three-point percentage of .361, and a free throw percentage of .876.

Williams is one of three players to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in back-to-back seasons. The other two are Kevin McHale of Hibbing, Minnesota, who won with the Boston Celtics in 1983-84, and 1984-85, and Detlef Schrempf of Leverkusen, Germany, who won the award with the Indiana Pacers in 1990-91 and 1991-92.

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