Yuta Watanabe announced his farewell to the NBA, giving up the 2.6 million player option and choosing to return to play in Japan

On April 20, Beijing time, the NBA play-offs continued. Earlier today, NBA player Yuta Watanabe held a personal livestream, in which he announced that he would be leaving the NBA and returning to the Japanese league.

Yuta Watanabe signed a two-year, $5 million contract last summer, and he has a $2.6 million player option this summer, but he chose to give up the player option. During the live broadcast, Yuta Watanabe said that he enjoyed basketball more purely, and he suffered too much in his 20s and wanted to make up for his teenage years in his 30s.

Yuta Watanabe is 29 years old and officially entered the NBA in 2018. He has played for the Grizzlies, Raptors, Nets, and Suns in his career. In a mid-season trade, he returned to the Grizzlies in a three-way trade. He has played in 34 games this season, averaging 3.4 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game.

Throughout his NBA career, Yuta Watanabe played in a total of 213 games, including 9 starts, playing an average of 13.3 minutes per game, scoring 4.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.4 steals and 0.3 blocks, shooting 42.6% from the field and 37% from three-point range. He scored a career-high 26 points in a single game.