Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News reports (via blog):
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Antonio McDyess, the 36-year-old Spurs forward who as recently as last month had been leaning toward retirement at the end of the season, said Thursday he plans to return for a 15th season.
“My mind is pretty much made up,” McDyess said. “I feel like I’ll be able to lace ‘em up and go again.”
When McDyess joined the Spurs as a free agent in July 2009, his plan was to play two more seasons and call it quits. As an incentive, the Spurs built into McDyess’ contract a third season in 2011-12, of which only $2.64 million is guaranteed — sort of an early retirement present.
The way coach Gregg Popovich has used McDyess this season — sparingly and situationally — has convinced McDyess that he could survive another season. McDyess is playing a career-low 18:06 per game this season, and has missed five games for rest purposes. He is averaging career lows in scoring (5.1 points) and rebounding (5.2 per game), but his shooting percentage (50.2) is up nearly three points from last season.
