After 16 seasons and four titles with the San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili is seriously considering calling it a career, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Ginobili, 41, is expected to meet with Gregg Popovich after the coach returns to San Antonio from Europe, where he was participating in the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders initiative.
Ginobili, who is signed through next season at $2.5 million, has been working out in San Antonio while he considers his options.
The Spurs, meanwhile, have undergone a major overhaul this summer, losing point guard Tony Parker to the Charlotte Hornets and trading disgruntled star Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors along with Danny Green.
Parker recently told the Chinese site HUPU that he plans to “retire as a Spurs player.”
“I always love San Antonio and the Spurs,” he said, via a translation from NBC affiliate WOAI in San Antonio.
Star guard DeMar DeRozan joined the Spurs in the Leonard trade.
Ginobili has taken several weeks to weigh his future in the offseason for the past three years.
“I like to let it season a little bit, to see how I feel,” he said in April. “Don’t expect news until July, probably. I just don’t know. I let a month, two months go by and see how I feel. I’m not the type of guy who makes decisions on the fly and when you are upset, hurt or whatever.”
A decorated star in international play for Argentina, Ginobili was taken as a second-round pick (57th overall) by the Spurs in 1999.
Since entering the league in 2002, he’s played in 1,057 games with 349 starts and averaged 13.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds — all for the Spurs.
