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Former champ Othello Hunter announces retirement

Former champ Othello Hunter announces retirement

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31 August 20233 Mins read

Othello Hunter celebrates a made basket during his time with FC Bayern Munich in the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

Othello Hunter, one of the best-ever offensive rebounders in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history and a 2019 champion, confirmed on social media late on Wednesday that he is ending his professional career at the age of 37. A 10-year EuroLeague veteran who spent the past two seasons with FC Bayern Munich, Hunter made his EuroLeague debut in 2013 with Montepaschi Siena. He had played in Europe's premier club basketball competition ever since.

Hunter will go down in history as a EuroLeague champ, having helped CSKA Moscow win the title four years ago. In the 2019 championship game against Anadolu Efes Istanbul, he had 7 points and 1 rebound in 17 minutes on the floor. That happened to be his fourth and final time reaching the Final Four. The veteran big man first helped Olympiacos Piraeus reach the championship game in 2015, before losing in the semifinals with Real Madrid in 2017 and CSKA in 2018.

Othello Hunter is one of the EuroLeague's greats

Only two players in EuroLeague history have pulled down more offensive rebounds than Hunter's 611: Kyle Hines (789) and Felipe Reyes (705). With an average of 2.2 offensive boards per game, he is one of only two players – Walter Tavares being the other – with more than 200 games played to be ranked among Top 25 in average offensive rebounds.

Over the past decade, Hunter amassed 275 appearances, scoring a total of 2,246 points and making 904 two-point shots. In addition, he pulled down 1,424 total rebounds, which ranks him eighth on the all-time charts.

Finding new ways to be effective

Even though he did not step on the EuroLeague floor until he was 27 years old, Hunter seemed to be still developing aspects of his game in recent seasons. Many of his career-best performances came in the past four seasons, including pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds in Round 17 last season on the road against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade. During the 2022-23 campaign, he also made 24 three-pointers, having made a total of 7 in nine seasons before that.

Between CSKA and Bayern, Hunter spent two seasons with Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv between 2019 and 2021. Prior to his EuroLeague debut, he started his career back in 2008 with the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA. His other stops saw him play for Anaheim Arsenal in the G League, Ilysiakos Athens in Greece, Dinamo Sassari in Italy, the Shandong Lions and the Jiangsu Dragons in China, Azovmash in Ukraine and Valladolid in Spain.