Former KU men’s basketball great Keith Langford announces retirement at age of 39

Former Kansas men’s basketball guard Keith Langford, the Jayhawks’ No. 8-leading scorer of all time, has announced his impending retirement from pro basketball at the age of 39.

Langford, who has played 17 seasons mostly overseas since graduating from KU in 2005, announced Thursday that his appearance for KU’s alumni team in the upcoming The Basketball Tournament (TBT) will hopefully put an exclamation mark on his playing days. The tourney will mark his swan song as a pro, he stated.

Langford, a 6-foot-4 guard from Fort Worth, Texas, and former KU guard Tyshawn Taylor, 6-3 from Hoboken, New Jersey, are the first two Jayhawks to announce their participation for Mass Street, a KU squad hoping to win the $1 million winner-take-all TBT prize starting this July 19-23 in Wichita.

Here’s Langford’s message to KU fans, via his Twitter account, regarding retirement and the upcoming TBT.

“In May of 2022 I had surgery for an Achilles tendinopathy that for the previous 10 months I tried to conservatively rehabilitate,” Langford revealed on Twitter.

“In what turned out to be an extremely trying time period, I was consumed by denial, anger, depression and bargaining. After 17 years and (at) the age of 38 (he turns 40 in September), I selfishly denied the last stage of grief that I knew was upon me. Acceptance. That being said, as I humbly and excitedly accept an invitation to participate in the TBT with MassStreet I couldn’t be in a better space to announce my retirement from basketball and have this full circle moment to play for the last time in representation of @kuhoops.”

Langford — he made a living not only hitting mid-range and long-range jumpers but also on explosive drives to the basket — explained, “I have given everything physically and mentally I have to this game: six knee surgeries, a herniated disc, broken foot, broken nose, broken finger, hamstring/groin strains and not to mention an unlimited amount of ankle sprains have all been worth it!! The journey has been the best part as well as the part I’ll miss most. I can’t wait to play one last time this July and phase into the next part of life.”

Langford finished his KU career with 1,812 points. He’s No. 6 on the Jayhawks’ all-time list in career field goals (671), No. 10 in free throws made (368) and tied for 22nd in career games played (136). He’s tied for second in most career games played in the NCAA Tournament (16) and seventh in consecutive games started (98).

Langford did make it to the NBA. The undrafted player participated in two NBA regular-season games for the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007-08 season. He also played in the NBA G League and U.S. Basketball League.

Overseas, he played in Italy where his Virtus Bologna team in 2009 won the EuroChallenge championship in which he was named MVP of the Final Four. Playing for Emporio Armani Milano in 2014, he was awarded the Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer trophy (17.6 points per game). He also was named all-EuroLeague first team.

Langford played in Israel for Maccabi Tel Aviv where he was named Adriatic League Final Four MVP in 2012. Playing in Russia for UNICS Kazan in 2016, Langford was VTB United League scoring champion (21.0 ppg). Langford, who had 42 points in a game, that season again won the Ford top scorer trophy.

In 2019 while playing in Greece, Langford helped Panathinaikos win the Greek Cub title and Greek Basket League title. Showing no signs of slowing, Langford playing for AEK Athens was named MVP of the Basketball Champions League in 2020.

Also, Langford represented the United States national team at the 2015 Pan American Games, where he won a bronze medal. He also played pro ball in China one season (2017-18).

He played as a pro a long, long time considering various injuries he incurred in 17 seasons.

“I can remember after having my third knee surgery at Kansas, being told that I could maybe play five years after I left,” Langford told The Star in a previous interview. “II also remember being told at the NBA Combine that these just weren’t good knees. Looking back on it, it’s a good thing I’m a stubborn (person).

“There is a ton of work and time that I have put into being able to play so long at a high level, but this has been so much more than I thought or expected. I can’t take all the credit because I have been fortunate enough to get with trainers and medical staff that have taught me different ways and shown me things to get the most efficiently from my body. It’s an expensive investment at times, but worth it.”

Langford in 2014 told the Star: “before I was offered a scholarship, I was just a kid from Fort Worth that was the starting power forward his junior year for his high school team. The decision to come to KU changed my life forever.”

Information on the TBT is available at the event Website.

Azubuike a free agent after three years with Jazz

Former KU center Udoka Azubuike is a free agent following the Utah Jazz front office decision to not pick up the option on his four-year contract which has paid him $10,141,244 guaranteed money.

Azubuike, a 6-11, 270-pound, 23-year-old first-round pick of the Jazz in the 2020 NBA Draft, had injury problems during his three years with the team.

However his hopes of signing a deal with a new team this offseason were bolstered at the end of the 2022-23 campaign. He averaged 7.5 points and 6.3 rebounds in the last 12 games of the season.

“First, I think it’s important to note that the Jazz get an F for drafting Udoka Azubuike. That is a separate grade and has nothing to do with how he performed and we should not hold the Jazz’s poor decisions against him,” wrote Sarah Todd of Deseret News.

“It’s also important to say that some freak injuries and unfortunate timing are not reasons to not like a player, to an extent. In three years, Azubuike has played in just 68 NBA games. He had one injury after another, and then when he was healthy he was either behind the likes of Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside or Walker Kessler and Kelly Olynyk.

“But, even when Azubuike was able to get on the court, he was all too often either not conditioned correctly or didn’t know where he was supposed to be. After three years, you would want a player to not have to be directed around by teammates and be out of position so often.

“Even so, the most glaring problem with Azubuike was just his skill level relative to other replacement level players. That issue was made clear and obvious this season when Damian Jones joined the team at the trade deadline. In Jones’ first seven minutes of action on the court, it was clear that he deserved backup center minutes over Azubuike.

“Azubuike does not get this grade (of F) because of the Jazz’s choice to draft him and he does not get this grade because of his injury history. He gets this grade because he hasn’t proven that he deserves more than an expiring deal.”