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The San Antonio Spurs fell short of making the Western Conference NBA finals after falling to the youth-oriented Oklahoma City Thunder in game 6, 113-99 a couple of days ago.

This was despite the rise of Kawhi Leonard and the key acquisition of LaMarcus Aldridge in the offseason which somehow made the Spurs a top contender to be this year’s NBA champions. It turns out that the boys of head coach Gregg Popovich needed some more help but such never came.

While the loss is crushing, the next week will be equally curious. The Spurs have a couple of senior statesmen in Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Duncan is already 40 while Ginobili is 38, both barely making a difference this year compared to their younger days. Will it be their last hurrah?

Duncan and Ginobili are expectedly mum on their future but a sane decision is likely to come soon. For now, it is all about getting over this disappointing run for the two and the rest of the Spurs.

"I'll get to that after I get out of here and figure life out," Duncan said following the loss. "That's it."

For Ginobili, no decision has been made and below is the closest one can get at least for now via ESPN:

"If I was miserable every day and I couldn't stand the guys next to me, it would be an easy decision. It could have happened two years ago. I really appreciate everybody: the team, front office, coaches, everything. So it makes it different."

Age is obviously the factor plus the fact that both didn’t get their usual minutes though with good reason. The Thunder were filled with young players that loved to run and coach Pop wanted to have fresh legs that could of course last.

On the topic of Duncan playing his last game, Popovich was a bit surprised at the question and reiterated that Duncan played pretty well despite the limited playing minutes.

"Do you know something that I don't know? I just wanted to make that clear. Tim was playing really well. So we played him as much as we possibly could because he earned the minutes. He really did a good job."

Of course, the ultimate decision still rests on the shoulders of Duncan and Ginobili. The Spurs will shy away from the topic though the reality is that both will one day hang it up. That could happen this year or perhaps next and the Spurs know it.