Brandon Davies, who began his professional career with the Philadelphia 76ers before becoming one of the EuroLeague’s more accomplished big men, has retired from professional basketball.
Alvark Tokyo announced on July 23 that Davies requested to retire and that the Japanese club had agreed to terminate his contract for the 2026-27 season. The decision came less than two months after Alvark announced that Davies would return for another year.
“This is a very sudden announcement, but after much thought, I have decided to retire from professional basketball,” Davies said in a statement released by the club, according to BasketNews.
Davies’ time in Philadelphia represented only a small portion of his career, but the 76ers gave the undrafted BYU product his first professional opportunity in 2013. He appeared in 71 games over parts of two seasons with Philadelphia and made six starts during the 2014-15 campaign.
The 6-foot-10 center later turned that modest NBA beginning into an extensive international career that included individual honors and championships in several countries.
Brandon Davies Began His Career With the Sixers
Davies joined Philadelphia shortly before the 2013-14 season, the first year of the franchise’s sweeping rebuild under then-general manager Sam Hinkie.
That Sixers team cycled through young players and overlooked prospects while accumulating draft assets. Davies became one of the many players given an extended NBA audition during that period.
He played 51 games as a rookie, averaging 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in 11.3 minutes. His role increased during his second season, when he averaged 6.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists across 20 appearances for Philadelphia.
Davies started six of those games before the Sixers traded him to the Brooklyn Nets in December 2014. He finished his NBA career with averages of 3.7 points, 2.5 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 78 games.
His NBA numbers did not hint at what would follow.
After his brief Nets tenure, Davies moved overseas and played in France, Italy, Monaco, Lithuania, Spain, Serbia and Japan. Rather than fading from prominence after leaving the NBA, he developed into a featured player for some of Europe’s most recognizable organizations.
Davies Became an All-EuroLeague Big Man
Davies’ breakthrough came with Žalgiris Kaunas, where he earned All-EuroLeague First Team recognition following the 2018-19 season.
He averaged 14.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists that year, establishing himself as a skilled interior scorer who could also facilitate offense. His performance led to a move to Spanish power FC Barcelona in 2019.
Davies spent three seasons with Barcelona and was named to the All-EuroLeague Second Team in 2020-21. He also helped the club win the Spanish league championship in 2021 and consecutive Spanish Cups.
His later stops included Olimpia Milano, Valencia Basket and Partizan Belgrade. Davies won domestic championships in Lithuania, Spain and Italy and helped Partizan capture the ABA League and Serbian League titles during the 2024-25 season.
Across eight EuroLeague seasons, Davies recorded 10.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game in 263 appearances.
Those accomplishments ultimately became the defining portion of his playing career.
Davies was never a major piece of the Sixers’ long-term plans, and his final NBA appearance came before Philadelphia drafted Joel Embiid’s eventual co-star Ben Simmons. Still, his career illustrates one consequence of the franchise’s early rebuilding years: players who might not otherwise have received meaningful NBA opportunities were able to establish themselves professionally.
For Davies, that opening became the first chapter of a career that lasted more than a decade and reached far beyond his 78 NBA games.
Former Philadelphia 76ers Starter Announces Retirement