Tony Parker Announces Retirement from France National Team: Details, Reaction

Tony Parker's international career at the Olympics will end without a medal. The French point guard announced Wednesday that the 2016 Rio Games will be his last appearance with the national team.

Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press reported the news, which came minutes after France's 92-67 loss to Spain in the knockout round. 

Parker, who dealt with a toe injury during the tournament, scored a team-high 14 points in his final national team contest. He has played on the senior national team since 2001, which has included the last two Olympic Games. The 34-year-old said in July he planned on making the Olympics his final international event.

“For me, I felt I have nothing to prove, I just wanna enjoy myself and enjoy playing with my teammates, and just try to enjoy every moment," Parker said, per Levi Verora Jr. of the Tiebreaker Times.

Parker said he considered retiring following the 2013 Eurobasket championship but decided to keep playing when France was awarded the 2015 European Championship.

“When they said in 2015 the European Championship is going to be in France, I said, boy, I have to play in that one. It’s our home, in front of my home crowd, so I felt 2016 would be the perfect ending for me to finish in the Olympics,” Parker said.

France coach Vincent Collet said Parker is the country's best player in history, per ESPN's Marc Stein, and it's hard to quibble with his resume. He led France to four Eurobasket medals, including a 2013 gold. France had never won gold on the international stage before and had only one medal since 1959 (2000 Olympic silver) when he joined the senior club.

Now, France sits fifth in the FIBA rankings and has a stable of young players who can carry on Parker's legacy. The likes of Evan Fournier, Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum and Joffrey Lauvergne are NBAers are young enough that they should be around to compete internationally for the next four years. Fournier is the only player among those who was left off the roster for the Rio Games.

Parker, meanwhile, can focus his summers on keeping his body in one piece for the rigors of the NBA season. He'll turn 35 next May, and the window on the San Antonio Spurs appears closing after the retirement of Tim Duncan and Golden State Warriors' signing of Kevin Durant.

If Parker plans on playing 70-plus games into his late 30s—he already showed signs of slowing down last season—retiring from international ball is probably the right call.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.