PERTH, WA -- Aron Baynes has left the door open on continuing his playing career.
The Australian big-man didn't sign with an NBL team for the 2024-25 season, leading to a wide-spread assumption around the league that he would bring his playing career to an end.
"I'm not labelling anything," Baynes told ESPN on Thursday.
"My body feels good. I love playing the game. It's just, right now, I'm focused on my family and being there with my kids. Just being dad right now. Just enjoying not having to be anywhere at any particular time, apart from school drop off and school pickup.
"Right now, nothing labeled; just, body feels really good, though, I'm moving well. We'll just see how it goes."
Baynes, 37, played with the Brisbane Bullets over the 2023-24 NBL season, averaging 7.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
Baynes joined the Bullets after a substantial playing career in the NBA, most notably with the San Antonio Spurs, where he won an NBA Championship in 2014. Baynes' most prominent season in the NBA came with the Phoenix Suns in the 2019-20 season, where he averaged 11.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
The Queenslander is currently in Perth for HoopsFest, as a guest coach at the Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp running from September 19-22. It's the second time Baynes has been a guest coach at a BWB event.
"As soon as I knew the NBA was coming down here, it's a fun thing to be a part of," Baynes said.
"The NBA always does everything exceptionally well. Out here at HoopsFest with the NBL, and FIBA out here, it's pretty cool to be a part of basketball and be able to give back as well. It's fun for me, coming into a situation like this.
"It was my first look into the international game: doing camps... getting to have the NBA brand as a front and centre of the best players of this age group in Asia and Oceania is pretty cool to be a part of."
This BWB Asia camp is an initiative run by the NBA, FIBA, and the NBL, with 60 high school aged prospects from over 15 countries participating in a four-day development camp.