HOUSTON — Sixteen years in the NBA can be a blur, Al Harrington can attest to that. He lived it.

On Wednesday, he recounted near two-decades worth of just sheer fun, allowing the words that put an end to things kick off the conversation.

He sat courtside at the Toyota Center after helping out during a Nuggets practice, and finally said it.

“I’m officially retired,” Harrington said. “I don’t know if there’s paperwork that I gotta fill out or anything. But my career is over.”

And what a career it was.

He’ll be known for a number of things, the least of which was being one of the first true success stories of the prep-to-pros era. A first-round pick of the Indiana Pacers in 1998, he’d only begun playing organized basketball four years earlier for St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, N.J.

“I’m very happy with what I was able to accomplish,” Harrington said. “I was able to change a lot of people’s lives in my family, including myself in a game that I eventually fell in love with and will always be in love with. And hopefully I can stay around the game until I die. It was a fun ride. It went by fast, too. It was like one minute I was 18, the next I was 25 then was 30 and now I’m 35. It was a fun run. Met a lot of great people.”

When Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt was elevated to his current post following the firing of Brian Shaw, Harrington was one of the first to congratulate him via text.

The next day Hunt had a text message for him: “You interested in coming and helping out?”

Harrington: “I’m actually going to be in town next week.”

Hunt: “Come by practice!”

Hunt needed the help. Harrington wanted the work. He’ll be with the team through the end of the season.

Harrington will best be known for his days with the Pacers, where he played seven seasons and was a huge part of the team’s run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2004.But his basketball story ended in China. Harrington spent 56 days this season with the Fujian Sturgeonsof the Chinese Basketball Association before leaving to come back to the United States.

“I missed my family so much,” Harrington said. “There’s only so much FaceTime I can do. I saw them walking around the house, which made me even more homesick. So, I had to get back home to the family.”

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost