Spencer Dinwiddie had a short and forgettable run with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2023-24 NBA season after joining the team following an in-season buyout. His time with the Charlotte Hornets was even less impactful than that of his brief stint in Los Angeles.
Dinwiddie joined the Hornets during free agency, signing a one-year deal with the franchise back in July. It only took a few months for Charlotte to decide their new guard did not have a place on their team. The Hornets waived Dinwiddie ahead of the start to the brand-new NBA season.
Being waived by a franchise that has been as down in the dumps as Charlotte in recent years was always a bad sign for the continued prospects of the veteran guard keeping a spot in the biggest basketball league on the planet. That prognosis was very much so the case.
Dinwiddie will be going international to continue his basketball career. The 32-year-old is joining Bayern Munich over in the EuroLeague, per an official announcement from the team. That right there may officially bring his days as a servicable combo guard in the NBA to an end.
Spencer Dinwiddie’s Bayern Munich deal suggests his time in NBA is over
Dinwiddie will not be the only former Lakers player on Bayern Munich for their 2025-26 season. Wenyen Gabriel, who was in Los Angeles during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, is also presently employed by the European basketball club.
Munich has been a popular stop for former Lakers. Isaac Bonga also played a couple of seasons with the team, suiting up with Bayern in 2022-23 and 2023-24, before moving on to Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade.
Bonga is young enough and offers enough intrigue after the latest EuroBasket competition that he will likely make an NBA return in the future. Dinwiddie may not enjoy that same type of comeback.
Creeping towards the end of his career, it is certainly not impossible that another NBA team gives him one more shot to be a reserve at the end of the bench. However, the league is as loaded with talent as ever.
Without NBA expansion, there may just not be enough spots for Dinwiddie at this point. While there has certainly been momentum towards that development in the future, nothing is imminent in the present. By the time it is, the aging guard will be even older, making a return all the more improbable.