Andrew Bogut may retire early due to Olympics postponement

Andrew Bogut had the end of his basketball career all planned out before the coronavirus pandemic ruined those plans.

Bogut had planned to retire after playing for Australia at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but is no longer sure what to do after the games were pushed back to 2021.

“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 told Australian program “Offsiders,” via Dennis Passa of the Associated Press. “It’s (my career) all been thrown into a washing machine essentially … but there’s a decision to be made probably by mid-May.”

Bogut said he enjoyed being able to spend time with his young children and put them to bed himself, but added that the chance to play for what he considered potentially the best Australian Olympic basketball team ever was tantalizing.

“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.”

Bogut has been a big success playing at home in Australia after a long NBA career, and he could probably still play in the United States based on the comments of his former coach. The 35-year-old is clearly starting to feel the impacts of age, though. It would be a shame if the delayed Olympics prematurely ended his basketball career.