Former Sonics guard, Blaine High star Luke Ridnour ready for retirement

Former SuperSonics point guard Luke Ridnour admits that he found the NBA offseason last summer quite humorous.

On June 24, 2015, Ridnour was traded by the Orlando Magic to the Memphis Grizzlies in a move to clear cap space. A day later, the Grizzlies traded the 6-foot-2 guard to the Charlotte Hornets, who turned around and traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Five days after that, he was dealt to the Toronto Raptors, who released him on July 9.

Ridnour ended up sitting out the 2015-16 NBA season and, ultimately, announced last week his plans to retire. He is looking forward to the third annual Luke Ridnour Basketball Camp, which he will host July 27-29 at Blaine High School.

“I’m retired,” said Ridnour, who helped lead Blaine to Class 2A high school state titles in 1999 and 2000 before playing at the University of Oregon. “I’m not going to go back. I think I knew it last summer; I just didn’t say it.”

Ridnour, 35, said he has yet to file his formal retirement paperwork with the league office, but he plans to do so “pretty soon.”

Once he does, it officially will bring to an end a 12-year career that saw Ridnour average 9.3 points, 4.5 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 830 career games. He played for Seattle, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Charlotte and Orlando. And let’s not forget last summer’s saga, which saw him traded four times in six days.

“Honestly, I think I’d pretty much made my decision before that,” Ridnour said of the summer transaction flurry. “It was funny to watch all the people get pumped up and write about it and all the craziness of those couple days.”

Ridnour said he much preferred the time he got to spend with family to “playing basketball everywhere around the world,” though he admitted he hasn’t done a whole lot since playing his last game for Orlando.

“At a certain point, it’s nice to be home and live a normal life with your family,” Ridnour said. “I missed spending time with them for so long, and I got to sit back and enjoy it. I missed bits and pieces of playing, especially some of the people and the competition. But overall, it was fun to be home, and I’m excited to be home more in the future.”

Where Ridnour calls home may change soon, as he said he and his family plan to move to Whatcom County from their current home in the Seattle area.

Though he’s done playing basketball professionally, Ridnour said he’s not done with the sport, which he learned from his father, Rob. Along with speaking at colleges, Ridnour said he plans to continue coaching youth basketball — part of the reason he’s looking forward to this summer’s camp in Blaine.

“It’s been fun running that camp,” Ridnour said. “We do it for the younger kids. ... It’s fun watching them come back the next year and seeing how they’ve grown and gotten better.”

And it’s been fun for Whatcom County to watch one of its own realize such success at basketball’s top level.

After Ridnour averaged 14.6 points and 5.2 assists per game in three seasons at Oregon, the SuperSonics selected him with the 14th pick of the 2003 NBA draft.

He played five seasons in Seattle, highlighted in 2004-05, when he started all 82 regular-season games and averaged 10.0 points per game to help the Sonics reach the playoffs. He also made the playoffs in 2010 with Milwaukee and 2014 with Charlotte.

His career earnings topped $45 million.

“For me, it was about the people I got to meet and influence and be around during my career,” Ridnour said. “I thank God for getting to play professionally for 12 years. I probably could have played a couple more, but for me, it was time to be home.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2016 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Former Sonics guard, Blaine High star Luke Ridnour ready for retirement."