Some players retire with fanfare, farewell tours, and celebrating titles, some retire with injury and bad performances and some play their last game, not knowing that this was their grand finale. These 10 NBA legends have won a total of 49 NBA titles and appeared in 142 all-star games. Here are their last games in the NBA.

1. Shaquille O'Neal

Towards the end of his career, Shaq wasn’t really in the best shape which limited his production on the courts. He averaged just nine points for the Boston Celtics in his final year, fighting through injuries that allowed him to play just 37 games in the regular season, even though he wasn’t fully healthy, big diesel wanted to play in the playoffs and he got the opportunity in the second round against the Miami heat he played just three minutes before his Achilles gave out and effectively ended his hall of fame career. Shaq didn’t even score in his final game.

2. Michael Jordan

Most people retire once, but MJ did it three times the first time in 1993, after his third title, and the second time in 1998 after the last dance, which proved not to be so last after all realizing that retirement is not as fun as playing NBA, basketball MJ was ready to lace him up again in 2001. It wasn’t air Jordan anymore and he couldn’t fly regularly, but he was still good enough to average 20 points per game in the final two seasons he played with the Washington wizards. However, once he broke 40, it was time to retire for good and let father time keep his undefeated record speaking of records.

The wizards didn’t have a good one and they were outside of the playoff picture. So everybody knew that Jordan's last game would be in the regular season against Allen, Iverson, and the Philadelphia 76ers. Countless media outlets, celebrities, and NBA legends were in attendance to see MJ's last game and celebrate his illustrious career. However, unlike Kobe's Jordan's, the farewell was only glorious during the pre-game festivities. In the game itself, Jordan struggled to score just 15 points on six of 15 shooting, while Washington ended up losing the game. 107-87

3. Wilt Chamberlain

In the 1972-73 season, chamberlain averaged 13.2 points and league-leading 18.6 rebounds with 73 shooting for the season. He’d also set up a field goal percentage record which stood for 47 years until Mitchell Robinson, shot 74 in 2020. Wilt was still dominant and with him and Jerry West, the lakers got another shot at the title in the NBA finals. They were awaited by the New York Knicks, whom the lakers beat in the previous season. This time it was the other way around and the Knicks won their second and last championship in franchise history. Sorry to rub it in next fans, but although chamberlain didn’t know it yet it was his last appearance in the NBA and he left the stage with 23 points and 21 rebounds in the final game.

4. Larry Bird

The last basketball game bird ever played was the gold medal game against Croatia at the 1992 Olympics. His last NBA game happened several months earlier in the second round of the playoffs bird was 35 at the time, and he was hampered with a back injury that limited him to only 45 regular-season games.

Despite the fact he had to stretch for two hours before each game to even be able to run, he still averaged 20.2 points, 9.6, rebounds, and 6.8 assists which earned him his 12th all-star appearance in 13 seasons. The Celtics played the Cavs in the second round and, despite playing the first three games without a bird who also missed an opening-round sweep of Indiana, they pushed the Cavs to seven games in a game. Seven, the old and banged-up Celtics couldn’t hold on, and the game was a blowout bird had 12 points, five rebounds, and four assists in 30 minutes of play when he was not stretching his back on the sidelines.

5. Kobe Bryant

sometime during the first quarter of the 2015-2016 regular season, Kobe Bryant published dear basketball, a beautiful poem about his love for basketball and his subsequent retirement. At the end of the season, the rest of the year turned into a farewell tour as all the franchise players and fans were trying to celebrate one of the greatest players ever. Do it his low-scoring games didn’t matter anymore, as we all learned to enjoy the candid relaxed, and joyful Kobe in his last season, the lakers were bad that year and Kobe averaged 16 points per game on 35 shooting for the season, and the moments where he Looked like mamba were very sparse. Can you do me a favor? I want you to get 50 in your last game. Shaq challenged his former teammate inside the NBA, to which Kobe laughed and said no way, and then it happened filled with adrenaline from the packed staples center of his family and countless celebrities.

Kobe went out in style like nobody ever did before him after he missed the first five shots of the game. He calmed down and started hitting by the end of the third quarter. He had 37 a miracle in itself, but Kobe was far from done in the fourth quarter. He did what he had done so many times he carried the Lakers to victory scoring 23 more points, making one tough jump shot after another. He outscored the entire jazz team.

In the fourth and bear in mind that Utah was fighting to get into the playoffs, so it wasn’t like they were letting him shoot, because it was his last game. Kobe left the game with four seconds to go to a long-standing ovation from the la crowd who knew they witnessed one of the best performances in basketball, history, Bryant set some records in that game, and the 60 points he scored in a career farewell is the most ever and no player before him had scored even 30 points in their last game.

6. Tim Duncan

While we were watching the last game of Tim Duncan's career, we didn’t 100 know that it was his last game, but we all suspected it Duncan, who turned 40 in April of 2016, entered the playoffs after the worst statistical year of his career. After an all-star and all-NBA year in 2015, he finally showed more advanced signs of aging in 2016, averaging just eight points per contest in the series against the Oklahoma city thunder Duncan struggled, and it was clear that his mobility and athleticism are a thing of the past. He did manage to score 19 points with five rebounds and a block in the last game, which was his best game of the playoffs before he left the floor and headed to the locker room quietly and without any fanfare. Timmy raised his hand in the air signaling that he had just checked out of the NBA game for the last time,

7. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul had one of the longest NBA careers and was productive even into his 40s. The lakers had won two titles in a row. In 1987 and 1988 and Kareem, who would turn 42 during the 1989 season, said that this would be his last campaign.

The whole season turned into a farewell tour for Kareem, with opposing teams paying tribute to one of the most dominant players to ever step on the hardwood. The tour culminated in the last regular-season game at the la forum where the lakers gave Kareem an oversized rocking chair with pat Riley, Magic, johnson, and others, delivering heartfelt speeches and Kareem's son singing the national anthem before the game. But because the lakers were a playoff team, his real last game happened in the 1989 NBA finals, where the lakers would get swept by the pistons who avenged their loss from a year before Magic got hurt during the series and Kareem was 42 and he couldn’t have Helped the lakers with more than 12 and a half points and five rebounds in four games before he rode off into the sunset Kareem notched, seven points and three rebounds in his final game.

8. Magic Johnson

Magic Johnson shocked the world in 1991 retiring from the NBA because he contracted HIV. He was 31 at the time and still in his prime just coming off a loss in the 91 finals against the Chicago bulls, but basketball remained his passion and Magic could not stay away. First, he returned for the 1992 all-star game in Orlando, with an emotional performance that earned him the game’s MVP award. He was then a part of the 1992 dream team at the Olympics and he wanted to return to the NBA for the 93 seasons. However, he opted against the comeback when some of the NBA players expressed fear about competing against someone who had HIV after a short stint. As the lakers' head coach in 1994, johnson finally made his comeback as a player in 1996, noticeably heavier and a bit slower.

Irvin still showed that there was a lot of Magic left, as he averaged 14.6 points. 6.9 assists and 5.7 rebounds as a power forward. Leading the lakers to a 22-10 record in 32 games played the ending, wasn’t so sweet after all, as the Lakers lost in the first round of the playoffs with internal problems within the team. The Magic stat line in the final game read eight points. Five boards and five assists in 30 minutes of action. “I’m going out on my terms, something I couldn’t say when I aborted a comeback in 1992” Magic said in his retirement announcement.

9. Hakeem Olajuwon

After he had spent 17 years of his NBA career as a Houston rocket, where he was a 12-time all-star with two NBA titles. Hakeem Olajuwon signed for the Toronto Raptors, who offered him more money. It was weird to see Hakeem in a Raptors jersey, just like it was weird to see him averaging seven points per game. The raptors had a good team, but without an injured Vince carter and the aging Olajuwon, they lost in the first round of the playoffs to the pistons. Hakeem played just 15 minutes in the deciding game of the series scoring eight points with four rebounds.

10. Bill Russell

The 1968-1969 Celtics were not considered to be championship contenders due to their age and only the fourth-best record in the east. Despite low expectations, Boston had beaten, Philadelphia and new york on their way to the new finals, and their appearance in the finals. They were met by the lakers who previously had all-stars jerry west and Elgin Baylor on the team, but now they also added the biggest star of them all the amazing wilt chamberlain. Nobody expected the Celtics to win even after they pushed the series to a game seven. The lakers were so sure of their victory that they placed thousands of balloons under the roof to celebrate their first championship since the team moved to California, but that celebration did not happen and the balloons were never released, led by player-coach bill Russell. The Celtics won 108-106, which was their 11th title in 13 years. Russell scored just six points, but he grabbed 21 rebounds and dished out six assists in one of the biggest surprises in the history of NBA finals.

Farewell Games Of NBA Legends