AJ Griffin Retires From Basketball To Serve God As A Minister

Houston Rockets guard AJ Griffin is retiring from basketball to pursue becoming a minister and serve God. Griffin was traded to the Rockets from the Atlanta Hawks earlier this summer, but the 21-year-old will be moving off their active roster to leave the NBA world behind and focus on Jesus Christ.

"I gave up basketball to follow Jesus. And I know that in a lot of people's eyes, that seems like, it seems like a loss in the world's eyes. But, I just want to let you guys know that I'm super excited because I truly get to serve God, you know, with my full Yes." 

"I feel like letting go of basketball is allowing me to, you know, go into full-time ministry and truly serving the Lord with all my heart, with all my time too, as well. So, I'm just excited to see where that leads me."

"With that being said, I just want to go through the steps on how I came to this realization. It started off with me giving my life to Christ in 2020. I truly accepted him back then, He found me. I know we say we find God but, he found me." 

Griffin played 92 NBA games over two seasons, averaging 7.5 points and 1.9 rebounds on 37.2% from the field. He was drafted 16th overall by the Hawks in 2021. He had shown flashes of being a high-level NBA player but still needed to unearth his full potential on the court. Griffin is a Duke prospect, making history alongside three classmates when they were all drafted in the first round of the 2021 Draft. 

AJ Griffin made over $9 million in his three years in the NBA, a life-changing amount of money already. Naturally, he could have made millions more as an NBA player going forward but his noble pursuit of spirituality trumps any material gains he could have received as an NBA player.

His father, Adrian Griffin Sr. was also in the NBA until last season as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks but would be unceremoniously fired with the Bucks having a 30-13 record last season. His replacement, Doc Rivers, openly said that firing Griffin made no sense and ceded his All-Star Game ring and bonus to the fired coach.