National Football League

Myles Garrett is 'retiring' from his basketball career – just like all these NFL stars

Updated Jun. 3, 2021 5:31 p.m. ET

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When the NBA postseason comes to a close, many athletes' hopes of winning the Larry O'Brien Trophy end along with it.

But one non-NBA athlete's "dream" came to an unexpected end during the first round of the playoffs.

Myles Garrett, the Cleveland Browns' defensive end who has blown up social media in recent months with his basketball exploits, has officially "retired" from hooping.

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski made the proclamation on Wednesday after being asked about Garrett's offseason pickup games. 

"He retired. … Really proud of him, but he's done," Stefanski said sarcastically. 

Stefanski's basketball ban makes sense when you remember Garrett signed a five-year, $125 million contract extension with the Browns in July 2020, with $50 million guaranteed at signing and $100 million in total guarantees, per OverTheCap.com.

His average expected earnings of $25 million per season put him second in the league among defensive ends, behind Los Angeles Chargers star Joey Bosa, and Garrett's current deal should keep him in a Browns uniform until 2026.

Considering that outlay, the Browns certainly don't want their superstar DE risking an injury playing basketball ⁠— even if it robs the world of ridiculous highlights.

But ahh, what could have been.

Nevertheless, Garrett's "retirement" got us thinking about some other NFL stars, past and present, with NBA — or at least decent basketball — chops.

Perhaps the most memorable of those players is former Chargers great Antonio Gates.

While he was a tight end in the NFL from 2003-2018, Gates was a stud at power forward for Kent State, helping lead the Golden Flashes all the way to the Elite Eight of the 2002 NCAA Tournament as a junior. 

In his senior season, Gates led the Golden Flashes in points (20.6) and rebounds (7.7) per game and chipped in 4.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game, good for second on the team and tied for first, respectively.

At 6-foot-4, his NBA dream didn't come to fruition, but the NFL soon came calling when he signed with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2003. 

For Gates, the rest is history, as he would go on to make eight Pro Bowl appearances and three All-Pro teams over the course of his 16-year career.

Tony Gonzalez is another case of a collegiate basketball player-turned dominant tight end.

Gonzalez racked up an average of 6.4 points per game during his three years at Cal, making it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 1997. However, unlike Gates, Gonzalez was a dual-sport athlete in Berkeley and caught plenty of attention as a tight end.

He inarguably made the right choice of sport, parlaying his gridiron success into a first-round selection in the 1997 NFL Draft and a Hall of Fame career with the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons.

The list of successful tight ends with collegiate basketball careers goes on, too, including with some contemporary players in the NFL.

Indianapolis Colts tight end Mo Alie-Cox is a former standout starting forward for VCU who helped lead the Rams to their first NCAA Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Tournament win in 2015 and a share of the 2016 A-10 regular season title.

Alie-Cox played 142 games for the Rams — with 103 starts — and he is VCU's all-time leader in career shooting percentage (57.4%) and second in career blocks (255). In his four-year career at VCU, he had 1,092 points, 663 rebounds, 87 steals, and 112 assists.

After his college basketball career was over, and despite not having played football since he was a freshman in high school, Alie-Cox signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2017.

At OTAs in Indianapolis last month, Alie-Cox showed off his skills against new teammate Carson Wentz in a game of Knockout, proving that he's still got it.

Some other NFL legends who played college hoops include Donovan McNabb (Syracuse) and Julius Peppers (North Carolina), while one even tried pro basketball along the way. 

Former superstar wide receiver Terrell Owens was a three-sport athlete (basketball, football, and track and field) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 

T.O. played in the 1995 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, one year before the San Francisco 49ers selected him 89th overall in the 1996 NFL Draft. During his tenure with the 49ers, Owens played professional basketball for the United States Basketball League’s Adirondack Wildcats in 2002.

And just a few years back, both NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal and two-time NBA champion Kenny Smith vouched for Owens' skills. 

"I've seen him play," Smith said. "If he would have put the concentration strictly on basketball, he could have [made the NBA]."

Then, there are some guys that weren't quite collegiate or NBA level, but love the game nonetheless — even when their franchises don't like to see them play.

No one can forget when the Chiefs were highly alarmed by the sight of their franchise quarterback shooting hoops in a friendly pickup game at a Kansas City gym back in 2019.

KC general manager Brett Veach told the media he immediately called Mahomes’ agent to make it clear the NFL MVP was not to participate in any more competitive basketball games. The Chiefs signed Mahomes to a 10-year contract extension the following summer worth up to $503 million, and unsurprisingly, Mahomes hasn't been spotted near a basketball court since. 

As for Garrett, he joked there might still be room to carve out a basketball career even if he's past his prime, calling Wednesday's announcement "more of like a [Michael] Jordan retirement."

The Cleveland-area rec leagues should be worried.

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