Despite rumblings that a reunion with his old team in Spain could be in the cards for veteran center Marc Gasol, Barcelona head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius told Spanish outlet Gigantes Del Basket that the team hasn’t spoken to Gasol, as Ennio Terrasi Borghesan of Sportando relays.
Spanish podcast host Sergi Carmona (Twitter link) reported earlier today that Gasol had reached an agreement with Barcelona, but Ernest Macia of Catalunya Radio (Twitter links) hears there’s nothing currently happening between the two sides, and Jasikevicius’ comments also suggest no deal is done. Carmona has locked his Twitter account since publishing his initial report.
While we have no confirmation that any agreement between Barcelona and Gasol is imminent, there’s reason to believe it could be a possibility at some point this offseason. Previous reports have indicated that the 35-year-old big man may consider a return to Europe as a free agent this year. And Barcelona would be a familiar setting — Gasol spent three seasons with the club from 2003-06 before eventually making the move to the NBA.
For what it’s worth, Marc’s brother Pau Gasol was also said to have a deal in place with Barcelona back in July, but that report was shot down by the team and there have been no updates on Pau since then.
If Marc does elect to head back overseas, it would help simplify the Raptors’ decision-making process in this offseason. The team may not be able to re-sign all of its key free agents, including Gasol, Fred VanVleet, and Serge Ibaka. A Gasol exit would allow the team to focus its efforts on retaining Ibaka in the frontcourt in addition trying to re-sign VanVleet.
If you’re a guy like Gasol and you want to keep playing basketball and can… why would you choose to play anywhere but the NBA? I mean I understand it might be more of “home” for him and everything… but the NBA is clearly the Premier professional basketball league and you’d have to figure he’d make a lot more $ here and like if you’re going to put all the work in to stay in shape and continue playing… I just don’t really get why an NBA caliber player would choose, by their own accord, to play anywhere else besides the NBA unless they couldn’t get a contract in the NBA (which obviously wouldn’t be the case for Gasol — personally I’m not sure how much he’s really got left in the tank but as evidenced by his 25 MPG with TOR — it seems obvious NBA teams, at least the Raptors, feel like he’s valuable enough to play significant minutes.
He’s still a very good defensive player though his offense leaves a lot to be desired.
Crazy concept: Money isn’t the only consideration for taking jobs. This is as true in real life setting as it is in professional sports.
It’s a pretty safe bet that a player who made 154 million dollars in their career probably doesn’t really care whether they make 3 million (Spain) or 6 million (NBA) on their next contract.
The question is who in their right mind would play in Toronto when you have the chance to play in Barcelona, right?
Of course the city of Barcelona is a far better place to live than Toronto, but yes I do get that if you can keep playin’ in the NBA you do for as long as you can, then you can have the rest of your life to enjoy live in Barcelona.
Having said that sometimes you can make more $ overseas than in the NBA, & you can be a star player not just a role player.
At the end of the day $ should never be a consideration for someone like Marc, he must have enough money for himself & his family for a few generations down the line, if not he is in trouble at this stage of his career.
But the important thing for him right now is what makes him happy, that matters, $ don’t!
Tapas >>>> poutine
Maybe he doesn’t want to live in another bubble for +/- 6 months.