It was basically a big game of telephone.
NBA Greece posted a story about how after the 2016 Rio Olympics San Antonio’s Tony Parker was going to retire from international play. That gets seen by some San Antonio television broadcasters and suddenly the rumor is “Tony Parker is going to retire in 2016.”
No. No he is not.
Mike Monroe of the Express-News decided to so something crazy and ask Parker about his reported retirement.
Report on NBAGreece, picked up by SA TVs, that @tonyparker to retire after '16 Olympics NOT true; will retire from French teamm NOT from NBA
— Mike Monroe (@Monroe_SA) February 26, 2014
Just spoke w/ @tonyparker confirms he's NOT retiring after 2016 Rio Olympics; TP: 'Are you crazy? I love basketball, wanna play til i'm 38'
— Mike Monroe (@Monroe_SA) February 26, 2014
It is going to be interesting to see what the Spurs do with Parker in a couple years. He will be a free agent in the summer of 2015 as will Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili — everyone basically comes off the books and it is expected Duncan and likely Ginobili retire from the NBA. The Spurs will start to rebuild with Kawhi Leonard as one of the key pieces. Do they keep Parker around for that? Let him walk as a free agent? Trade him?
Parker has said he doesn’t want to leave San Antonio but if they are going full rebuild in 2015 more than few teams will be knocking on Parkers’ door giving him options.
However that is very different from retiring.