Fifteen-year NBA veteran Nicolas Batum's plans with regard to his professional basketball career have been confirmed by his wife.
The 34-year-old forward will play his 16th and final season in the NBA during the 2023-24 season with the Los Angeles Clippers.
"Nico has decided to end his career (NBA and French national team) after the Olympics, so this is his last season with the Clippers," Batum's wife Aurelie said in a tweet, translated from French when asked about her husband's plans for his NBA career.
The France international will be entering the final year of a two-year, $22 million contract that he signed back in 2022, and he will likely not seek another deal to continue his journey in the world's premier basketball league.
After the conclusion of the upcoming NBA season, Batum will be suiting up for the France national basketball team in front of their home country during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, his final set of games as a professional basketball player. He will hang up his sneakers after the tournament.
Batum is set to captain France at the upcoming 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup from August 25 to September 10, to be held primarily in the Philippines, with some games in Indonesia and Japan.
The French squad will also feature fellow NBA veterans Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier, but this year's first overall pick Victor Wembanyama opted to skip the tournament.
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Nicolas Batum has had a productive career
Batum's professional basketball career started in 2006 in the LNB Pro A French basketball league, where he played for two years with the Le Mans Sarthe Basket.
The Frenchman was selected in the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft with the 25th overall pick by the Houston Rockets, and he was traded immediately to the Portland Trail Blazers.
He spent the first seven seasons of his NBA career in Portland, where he established himself as a highly-skilled, consistent, and versatile player with great prowess at the defensive side of the ball.
The Trail Blazers traded Batum to the Charlotte Hornets in June 2015, and he helped the team reach the playoffs in 2015-16, their final postseason appearance as of 2023.
For his performances, the Hornets rewarded Batum with a lucrative five-year, $120 million contract in the summer of 2016. While he did well during the 2016-17 season, posting career-high averages in points and assists, his production dipped during the following seasons due to injuries.
Batum himself apologized to Hornets fans near the end of his stint in North Carolina for failing to live up to the value of his contract.
Batum has since played for the Los Angeles Clippers, where he has been a solid locker-room presence and a great mentor to the team's young players.
The 6-foot-8 has career averages of 10.7 points, 3.4 assists, and 5.0 rebounds.
Batum has earned a total of $187 million in NBA salary so far, and that number will be close to $200 million as he is set to make $11.7 million in his final season with the Clippers.
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