Former Cavs Player Shockingly Retires From the NBA
By Cem Yolbulan
With the peak of free agency and the offseason coming to an end, there isn't much happening in the NBA. However, it still finds a way to surprise us. This time it was a retirement announcement that caught every basketball fan by surprise.
Veteran sharpshooter Joe Harris, who was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, called it quits on Thursday, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
NBA News: Joe Harris Retires From NBA After 10 Years
After 10 NBA seasons, Joe Harris has retired from basketball. Harris played 504 NBA games for the Nets, Cavaliers and Pistons. He was a career 43.6 percent three-point shooter and won the Three-Point Contest at 2019 All-Star weekend. pic.twitter.com/2eLPJAhLzU
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 15, 2024
The 33rd-overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Harris came into the league as an NBA-ready shooter out of Virginia. It still took him a couple of years to adjust to the league.
Harris was a seldom-used rookie on the 2014-15 Cavs team that made the NBA Finals. In his second year in the league, he had to go through a season-ending foot surgery and was traded to the Orlando Magic mid-season. Later that season, Cleveland went on to win the NBA championship.
Unfortunately for Harris, he would never get back to the NBA Finals for the rest of his career. However, he still had a productive career as a role player, with his best years coming as a Brooklyn Net. In his seven seasons in Brooklyn, he averaged 11.6 points on 44% three-point shooting as he established himself as one of the best shooters in the NBA, even winning the three-point contest in 2019.
Thanks to his reputation as an elite shooter, Harris signed a four-year, $72 million deal in 2020 before finishing out his career with the Detroit Pistons last season.
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