Former Brooklyn Nets guard Isaiah Whitehead this week announced on social media that he has retired from professional basketball, at the age of 31.
Whitehead indicated his decision in a post on Saturday to the platform currently known as X. His retirement comes ten years after he began his professional career as a second-round NBA draft pick, whereafter he spent two seasons with the Nets.
hell of a career on the court!
Whitehead’s NBA Career
An alumnus of Seton Hall, Whitehead played two seasons for the Pirates and averaged 18.2 points and 5.1 assists per game in the second one, helping Seton Hall win its first Big East Tournament title since 1993 and reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006. The Utah Jazz subsequently selected Whitehead with the 42nd overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, and immediately traded his draft rights to Brooklyn, in exchange for those of Marcus Paige and cash.
Joining the Nets gave Whitehead the opportunity to begin his professional career with his hometown team. Indeed, when he made his NBA debut, he became the first Brooklyn-born player to appear for the Brooklyn Nets.
Whitehead took on a substantial role in his rookie year on a dishevelled Nets team, appearing in 73 games and starting 26. He averaged 7.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 22.5 minutes per game, used extensively at point guard despite having also played off the ball during his college career. His second season, however, saw both his production and his opportunity dwindle; Whitehead appeared in only 16 more games for Brooklyn, averaging 6.3 points in 11.3 minutes, instead spending much of the campaign with the Long Island Nets in the G League. Down there, he played 30 games and averaged 22.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
Abridged European Second Career
In July 2018, the Nets traded Whitehead to the Denver Nuggets as the sole returning (and yet ancilliary) piece of the deal that brought Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur and two draft picks to Brooklyn. However, Denver waived Whitehead four days later. And those 89 appearances with the Nets were to be the entirety of his NBA regular-season career.
After his NBA career ended, Whitehead signed with Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia the following month, where he spent five months. After leaving the club in January 2019, he returned to America on a two-way contract with the Detroit Pistons, but although he averaged 18.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists for their G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Drive, Whitehead did not appear in an NBA game for the Pistons,
Whitehead later played for Mornar Bar in Montenegro, Besiktas in Turkey, Ludwigsburg in Germany and multiple clubs in both Israel and Poland. He finished his playing career with Ironi Nes Ziona in Israel, his second stint with the team, and averaged 8.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in an injury-ravaged campaign. Having battled injuries to his hand, wrist, feet and knees across his career, it seems likely that the cumulative toll will have been a significant factor in Whitehead’s decision to end his career relatively early, when on the surface, it would appear that he still had a few good years left.
Former Nets Guard Retires Aged 31