Andrew Bogut Deciding Between Olympics, Retirement

Andrew Bogut had hoped to use the Summer Olympics as his farewell to basketball, but the one-year delay caused by the coronavirus has complicated those plans, writes Dennis Passa of The Associated Press. At age 35, Bogut isn’t sure if he can go through another year of training to prepare for the competition.

“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 in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Offsiders program. “It’s (my career) all been thrown into a washing machine essentially … but there’s a decision to be made probably by mid-May.”

After spending 13 years in the NBA, the top pick in the 2005 draft has played for Sydney in Australia’s National Basketball League for the past two seasons. He won an NBA title with Golden State in 2015 and rejoined the Warriors after his NBL season ended last year, averaging 3.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in 11 games.

Sydney reached the NBL finals this season, but the five-game series was stopped after three games because of the pandemic, and Perth – which held a 2-1 lead – was awarded the title. Bogut blasted the league’s handling of the situation, saying the players were “used like pawns.”

Bogut, who has been part of Australia’s international team since 2004, would love to cap off his career with an Olympic medal. He played an important role in a fourth-place finish at the 2019 World Cup and believes the Australians will be in contention with Sixers star Ben Simmons on the team.

“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,” Bogut said. “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.”