Knicks veteran forward announces that he is not retiring

P.J. Tucker barely played after joining the New York Knicks in March, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready for retirement. The 40-year-old forward announced on Instagram Wednesday that he plans to continue his career.

Tucker blasted “uncredited sources” who apparently have been reporting that he’s about to retire and stated that he had to interrupt his vacation to “set the record straight.”

Tucker began this season with the Clippers after picking up an $11.54M player option, but he reached an agreement to stay away while his agent and team officials worked to find a trade.

Nothing happened until Feb. 1 when he was sent to Utah as part of a four-player deal. He was moved to Toronto five days later in the five-team Jimmy Butler trade and remained inactive with the Raptors until they waived him at the end of February.

Tucker signed a 10-day contract with New York on March 10 and another one on March 20. Even though he only made one brief game appearance during that time, he was signed to a standard contract because Knicks officials liked the influence he had in the locker room.

Tucker wound up getting into three games during the regular season, averaging 3.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 19.3 minutes per night. He made one four-minute appearance during the playoffs.

The Knicks hold a $3.5M team option on Tucker for next season that must be exercised by June 29. Even if they pick it up, Tucker’s contract won’t become guaranteed until the league-wide guarantee date of Jan. 10.