Taj Gibson has announced his retirement from the NBA after 17 seasons and will immediately begin the next chapter of his career with the Chicago Bulls.
According to Shams Charania, the 41-year-old is returning to the franchise that drafted him in 2009 to become an assistant coach under new Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter.
Gibson finishes his playing career having appeared in 1,012 regular-season games, including eight seasons with Chicago.
There probably couldn't be a more appropriate place for Taj Gibson to begin his coaching career.
Seventeen NBA seasons after Chicago selected him with the 26th pick of the 2009 Draft, Gibson is going back to where it all started.
And while his career won't be remembered through All-Star appearances or individual awards, lasting for 17 seasons and more than 1,000 NBA games tells its own story.
Gibson entered the league with the Bulls at 24 and immediately became part of the rotation, playing all 82 games and starting 70 as a rookie. He averaged 9.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks that season and earned All-Rookie First Team honours.
He would spend eight seasons in Chicago and became one of the familiar faces of the Bulls teams built around Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng.
Gibson was rarely the headline.
That was also part of his value.
Defence, rebounding, physicality and doing the less glamorous work became constants throughout a career that eventually took him through Chicago, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, New York, Washington, Detroit, Charlotte and Memphis.
By the time it ends, Gibson has played 1,012 regular-season games and another 71 in the playoffs.
His career averages of 8.3 points and 5.7 rebounds don't capture why NBA teams continued finding places for him into his forties.
Longevity at this level requires more than production.
It requires professionalism, adaptability and an acceptance that your role will change. Gibson went from starting 70 games as an NBA rookie to becoming the veteran at the end of a bench whose influence could extend well beyond his minutes on the court.
That might also explain why coaching feels like such a natural next step.
Chicago is entering a new period under Tiago Splitter, and Gibson now gets to bring 17 seasons of experience into a Bulls dressing room containing players who weren't even teenagers when he made his NBA debut.
There is something fitting about the timing too.
Only days ago Gibson was traded from Memphis to New Orleans and subsequently waived. At 41, he could have waited to see whether another playing opportunity appeared.
Instead, he has chosen to begin another career.
And he gets to do it wearing Bulls colours again.
LEAN EDGE VERDICT: Taj Gibson's career is a reminder that NBA success doesn't have to mean becoming a superstar. Seventeen seasons, more than 1,000 games and the trust of team after team is an achievement in itself. Now Chicago gets something back from one of its former players that can't be measured on a stat sheet: nearly two decades of NBA experience to pass on to the next generation.