San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, a future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, is seriously considering retirement and plans to meet with coach Gregg Popovich in the coming days to discuss his future, league sources told ESPN.
Ginobili, 41, has been working out regularly at the Spurs' practice facility and hasn't made a final decision on the coming season, but sources say that he's strongly confronting the possible end to an historic 16-season run with the Spurs that includes four NBA championships.
Popovich is traveling back to San Antonio from Europe, where he recently participated in the league's Basketball Without Borders event in Belgrade. The Spurs are hopeful that Ginobili will want to return for a 17th NBA season and are allowing him to take all the time he needs to make a decision, league sources said.
Ginobili has one year left on his contract, worth $2.5 million.
The Spurs lost his longtime teammate, Tony Parker, to the Charlotte Hornets in free agency, and traded Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to Toronto for DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl.
Ginobili is one of the most decorated international players in basketball history, a two-time NBA All-Star, an Olympic gold medalist for Argentina and a Euroleague MVP. Ginobili has played 1,057 regular season and 218 playoff games with the Spurs, ranking in the franchise's top five all-time in games, points (14,043), assists (4,001) and steals (1,392)
Ginobili averaged 8.9 points and 20 minutes a game for the Spurs last season. Ginobili's unconventional and spectacular style, including a frequent flair for the dramatic, helped define an unprecedented modern era of Spurs dominance along with longtime teammates Tim Duncan and Parker. Ginobili was the 57th overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft, starring in Europe before joining the Spurs for his rookie NBA season in 2002.
