With each passing season, more and more players in the previous generation of the NBA are graduating into retirement.
Some of the most recognizable and dominant players of a beloved era (e.g. Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, etc.) have recently ended their professional playing careers.
As the league begins to look increasingly different every year, we decided to look at which players drafted before 2011 are still active in the league. There are only 30 players who fit those qualifications and only 19 have started more than one game this season.
Here is a look at each NBA draft class and who remains active years later.
All data is provided via Stathead and is accurate as of publishing.
2003 - 1 player
LeBron James
2004 - 0 players
2005 - 1 player
Chris Paul
2006 - 2 players
Kyle Lowry, P.J. Tucker
2007 - 5 players
Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Mike Conley, Jeff Green, Thaddeus Young
2008 - 10 players
Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Danilo Gallinari, Eric Gordon, Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, JaVale McGee, Nic Batum, DeAndre Jordan
2009 - 9 players
James Harden, Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, James Johnson, Jrue Holiday, Taj Gibson, Patrick Beverley, Danny Green, Patty Mills
2010 - 2 players
Gordon Hayward, Paul George
MORE RECENT YEARS
2011 – 16
2012 – 9
2013 – 13
2014 – 21
2015 – 19
2016 – 18
2017 – 21
2018 – 37
2019 – 33
2020 – 40
2021 – 46
2022 – 45
2023 – 51
