Doug McDermott, a former member of the Sacramento Kings, recently announced his retirement. His final games in the NBA were played wearing a Kings jersey in the 2025-2026 season, which wasn't the best note to go out on. Regardless, McDermott had a great career that he should be proud of.
In college, McDermott played for the Creighton Bluejays. If you look back at his four-year run, he actually did incredibly well. McDermott was the 2014 NCAA scoring champion, was a three-time Consensus first-team All-American, and was named the 2014 National College Player of the Year.
After finishing up as a bona fide Bluejays legend, McDermott was then drafted 11th overall by the Denver Nuggets in 2014, but was part of a draft-night trade that sent him to the Bulls. He spent the better part of three seasons in Chicago before finishing off 2017 with the Thunder.
McDermott would go on to play for the Knicks, Mavericks, and Spurs. He also had two runs with the Pacers, the first of which lasted three seasons and the second a few months. The last season of McDermott's career was spent with the Kings, mostly on the bench.
Calling it a career after the Kings
With 12 seasons of professional basketball under his belt, McDermott decided to retire after the Kings didn't re-sign him and no other team hooked him up. At the age of 34, finding a regular spot was going to be more trouble than it was worth for him. Reputedly, he felt it was a natural stopping point.
He walks away from the NBA as one of the top three-point shooters of all time. A lot of people don't know that McDermott is currently 22nd overall on the all-time career three-point percentage rankings. He's sitting at 41.0%, which is actually quite impressive when you think about it.
As odd as this sounds, McDermott wasn't the only NBA player to retire after spending the 2025-2026 season in Sacramento. Future Hall of Fame point guard Russell Westbrook also finished up his career with the Kings. In his case, it was after 18 seasons and not receiving an offer he could work with.
While his future plans haven't been announced, McDermott has the knowledge, temperament, and skills to be a respectable coach either in the NCAA or the NBA. Who knows? He might be the one to finally replace Doug Christie and potentially lead Sacramento to a more relevant place in the league.
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