Longtime NBA center Andrew Bogut has been playing for Sydney in the National Basketball League in Australia and hoped to suit up for his country in the 2020 Olympic Games.
But with the Olympics postponed to 2021 and basketball on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bogut is considering retirement.
Bogut said that while he does miss playing, he has also welcomed feeling healthier and spending more time with his wife and kids in the absence of basketball. The former NBA champion center added he will likely decide his basketball future by mid-May (via ESPN):
“I haven't done any basketball since the season ended, and it feels good waking up, getting out of bed and not feeling like I'm walking on glass,” Bogut said. “It's [my career] all been thrown into a washing machine, essentially … but there's a decision to be made probably by mid-May.”
The former NBA No. 1 overall pick played for an Australia squad that finished fourth at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, and he had been excited about competing in Tokyo this summer. Although Bogut said he would like to keep the Olympics in play, he is not sure his body can hold up.
“We've been tantalizingly close, and the squad we're going to have is arguably going to be the best squad in the history of the Boomers, on paper at least,” Andrew Bogut said, per ESPN. “To be part of that, selfishly, is something I really want to do, but the body is what it comes down to.
“I can get up for a basketball game any day of the week, but it's hard to get up for five, six days of training a week and lifting weights.”
The postponement of the Olympics has put a number of veterans — including Spain's Pau Gasol — in a bit of a compromising position.
In any case, Bogut is not waiting around to decide what becomes of his basketball future. He will make his decision in accordance with how his body feels in the coming months.
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