Taj Gibson retires after 17 NBA seasons, joins Chicago Bulls as assistant coach under Tiago Splitter

Taj Gibson closed a 17-year playing career on Monday and did not leave the game empty-handed. Hours after the 41-year-old announced his retirement, ESPN reported he is heading back to the Chicago Bulls as an assistant on Tiago Splitter’s staff.

“Today is a very emotional day for me,” Gibson wrote. “After 17 seasons in the NBA, I can honestly say I gave this game everything I had.”

The Brooklyn native leaves as one of the league’s most durable role players. He finished with 1,012 regular-season games, 8,431 points and 5,754 rebounds across eight franchises. Chicago and New York accounted for 737 of those appearances.

Taj Gibson's journey

Taj Gibson was the No. 26 pick in the 2009 draft, a USC product who started 70 games as a Bulls rookie and made the All-Rookie First Team. He spent his first eight seasons in Chicago, averaging 9.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 562 games next to Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Toughness, not flash, kept him employed long after those teams faded.

He later played for Oklahoma City, Minnesota, New York, Washington, Detroit, Charlotte and Memphis. Teams kept calling because he defended, rebounded, and set a locker-room standard. That reputation followed him to Madison Square Garden.

Gibson played parts of four seasons with the Knicks, first arriving in 2019 and returning in 2023-24. He appeared in 175 regular-season games for New York, starting 64, and averaged 4.9 points and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 56.7 percent from the field. Tom Thibodeau, who had coached him in Chicago and Minnesota, trusted him as a veteran voice. When Mitchell Robinson suffered a stress fracture in December 2023, the Knicks went back to Gibson, then brought him in again on a 10-day deal in January 2024.

From waiver wire to the United Center bench

The end of his playing career moved quickly. Memphis traded Taj Gibson to New Orleans on September 8 as part of the deal that sent Jordan Hawkins and Micah Peavy the other way. The Pelicans waived him the next day. He had played 10 games for the Grizzlies in 2025-26, averaging 3.4 points and 2.7 rebounds.

Splitter was named the 25th head coach in Bulls history in June after a season as Portland’s interim coach. Chicago hired him for player development and a competitive standard. Adding a former first-round pick who spent eight years in the building fits that plan.

Gibson did not frame Monday as an exit. “This isn’t goodbye to Basketball,” he wrote. “It’s the beginning of a new chapter.” He also noted 31 years in the sport and said he can walk away with no regrets.

For a kid from the Fort Greene projects who made it from USC to the United Center, the next job is in the same city where the first one started. The jersey is off. The clipboard is next.