On Sunday, Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News reported that Manu Ginobili “will announce [his] return-or-retire decision in his own column in Argentine newspaper ‘La Nacion’ ‘when the time comes.'” This report makes it seem likely that Ginobili, who struggled mightily at times this past season with the San Antonio Spurs, is retiring from the NBA.

Ginobili, now 37 years old, was unable to ever fully regain the form he revealed just one year prior in San Antonio’s playoff run. In the 2014 NBA Playoffs, Ginobili tallied 14.3 points per game and 4.1 assists per game, while shooting 43.9 percent from the field and 39.0 percent from behind the arc. These numbers demonstrated that Ginobili had an ample amount of gas left in the tank. However, his 2015 NBA Playoffs suggested just the opposite.

In this year’s postseason, Ginobili was relegated to only 18.7 minutes per game by head coach Gregg Popovich. In the series with the Los Angeles Clippers, Ginobili shot a dismal 34.9 percent from the field and averaged a career playoff low of 8.0 points per game.

Now, with the Spurs in hot pursuit of free agent LaMarcus Aldridge, Ginobili would certainly have to take less than the $7 million he made last year with San Antonio. However, this is not a foreign concept to Ginobili, as he as taken pay cuts several times with the Spurs over the years.

In the end, publishing an article in one’s home country does not sound like a player who will be returning to the NBA for another season. Couple that signal with Ginobili’s poor play at the end of the season this past year, and it seems all but certain that Ginobili will end his 13-year career sooner than many seem to think.

Nicholas Sciria is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Nick_Sciria, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.