11-year NBA big man Mike Muscala is wrapping up his playing career at age 33, he tells The Oklahoman’s Joel Lorenzi.
“Grateful for it all,” Muscala texted Lorenzi about the decision.
After being named a two-time Associated Press honorable mention All-American and the two-time Patriot League Player of the Year at Bucknell, the 6-foot-10 center/power forward was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the No. 44 overall selection in the 2013 NBA Draft but saw his rights traded to the Atlanta Hawks.
Muscala actually began his pro career playing for Spanish club Río Natura Monbús Obradoiro of the Liga ACB. He left Río Natura Monbús Obradoiro in February 2014 and started playing for the Hawks in March. The floor-spacing big man ultimately spent five seasons with the Hawks, averaging 5.4 points on a .491/.378/.848 slash line, 3.1 rebounds, 0.9 assists, and 0.5 blocks a night.
During the summer of 2018, Muscala was then traded to the Philadelphia 76ers as part of a three-time transaction between Philadelphia, Atlanta, and another future Muscala destination, the Oklahoma City Thunder. That’s when Muscala’s journeyman run through the league really began in earnest. He played briefly for the Sixers and Los Angeles Lakers (and was also briefly on the L.A. Clippers that year) that season, before ultimately landing with the Thunder in the summer of 2019, after signing a two-year deal with the club.
In his first year with the team, Muscala served as a key stretch big during All-Star Chris Paul’s lone season in Oklahoma City, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s inaugural run after being traded by the Clippers in the Paul George deal. That club surprised everybody, notching a 44-28 record and making a run to the playoffs, where it fell in seven games to the Houston Rockets, led by former Thunder stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook.
After his first two contracts with the club ended in 2021, Muscala signed a pair of subsequent deals to stay with the Thunder, even as the team embraced the tank over the next two years.
“It means a lot,” Muscala reflected of his long tenure with the Thunder back in May, per Lorenzi. “I went through a lot in my life when I was here, just the city, the fans, the way that they support the team, what the team means to the community, those are things that I feel like I can relate to.”
Muscala was traded to the Boston Celtics late into 2022-23 for small forward Justin Jackson and a pair of future second-round draft picks. He was dealt to the Washington Wizards in the summer of 2023 as part of Boston’s three-team deal that netted the team center Kristaps Porzingis, who helped lead the club to its 18th title this spring. Muscala was dealt to the Detroit Pistons in January of 2024. The Pistons cut Muscala in late February. He inked a deal in March to finish out the year with the revamped Thunder once again, who would go on to earn the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and eventually fall to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round.
“I’ll always be a Thunder fan no matter what happens in my life,” Muscala insisted in May.
For his career, he boasts averages of 5.9 points on a .451/.373/.830 slash line, 3.1 rebounds, 0.8 assists, and 0.5 blocks across 548 regular season games (45 starts).
Per Lorenzi, Muscala intends to look into a sports management graduate degree and is hoping to resume his hoops career as a coach or in a front office.
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