The Spurs had until the end of business Monday to guarantee the other half of veteran big man Antonio McDyess’ $5.2 million contract, but they won’t drag the process to the end of the day.
The teams acknowledged that McDyess won’t be back, and the club will get to remove $2.6 million, the non=guaranteed portion of his contract, off its player payroll for the 2011-12 season.
McDyess, a former All-Star and an Olympic gold medal winner i n 2000, started all six playoff games last season. After the Game 6 loss in Memphis that ended the playoff run of the No. 1 seeded team in the Western Conference he made it clear to the Express-News that he intended to retire after 16 seasons.
“This was not at all how I wanted it to end, but signing here was one of the best things I did in my career,” he said then. “I wouldn’t trade these two years for the world, one of the greatest times of my whole career. I just wish we would have gone farther.”
The Spurs had hoped the shortened post-lockout season might enable them to talk McDyess into playing the final season on his contract, but officially gave up the quest on Monday afternoon.