ESP – Sad Raptors bid Garbajosa farewell

TORONTO (Olympics) – Toronto Raptors supremo Bryan Colangelo has spoken of his sadness over the team’s parting with Spain international Jorge Garbajosa.

The two sides agreed to a buyout of the player’s contract in Madrid on Tuesday, freeing the power forward/center to sign with another NBA club or a team in Europe.

While financial details were not disclosed, Colangelo told the Globe and Mail newspaper the club had received “a little” financial relief on the 4.25million US dollars it owed Garbajosa during the final year of a three-year, $12.75-million contract.

“After a long, difficult and sometimes emotional process stemming from a traumatic injury to a key player, it was concluded that parting ways was the best thing for both Jorge and the Raptors organization,” Colangelo said in a club statement.

“We wish Jorge nothing but the best with his basketball future.”

Garbajosa, a gold medal winner with Spain in 2006 and a former champion in Italy with Benetton Treviso and in Spain with Unicaja Malaga, appeared set to have a very solid NBA career when injury befell him near the end of the regular season in his rookie campaign.

He suffered a dislocated left ankle joint with ligament tear and fractured fibula and had surgery to repair the ankle and fibula immediately after, and then after playing at the EuroBasket in Spain last year, he had an operation on his left ankle in December to bring an end to his second season.

Colangelo said in the press conference after Toronto’s elimination from the play-offs that Garbajosa’s absence had been a hammer blow to the team.

While he may not be the leading scorer, rebounder or shot-blocker, Garbajosa does a lot of the dirty work inside and is versatile for a player who is 6ft 9in, both on offense and defense.

The Garbajosa situation has been a difficult one ever since his injury.

He made no secret of his desire to make it back from his first operation in time to play for Spain on home soil at last year’s EuroBasket, and though the Raptors had wanted him to have another operation because their examinations showed he still had a broken leg, he chose a non-surgical path to recovery.

The Spanish federation obtained insurance for the player, and he made it through the entire tournament and helped his country win a silver medal.

After returning to Canada, things did not go well.

By late November, Garbajosa was struggling and finally agreed to have the second operation that ended his season.

The Raptors, believing he’d had a setback in his recovery because of his participation in the EuroBasket, made a claim against the insurance.

Long negotiations ensued with the company and the Spanish federation, and a lawsuit was filed that was ultimately suspended.

The matter was laid to rest when Garbajosa and Toronto agreed this week to part.

Colangelo stressed in the Toronto press that the Raptors had not wanted to see Garbajosa leave the club but admitted he was relieved that the situation had been resolved.

“It's bittersweet,” Colangelo said after the end of his meetings with both the Spanish federation in Madrid and the insurance company, “because no matter what the financial benefits of the deal, we don't have the player.

“We missed him last season and now we won't get him back and have to find what he brought to our lineup and that's not easy.”

Spanish basketball, meanwhile, is ready to move forward and Garbajosa looks set to have a prominent role with the national team this summer after being recently named in coach Aito Garcia Reneses’ Olympic squad.

"Jorge is perfectly recovered from his injury and this for us is the best news," said Spanish Basketball Federation president said Jose Luis Saez after the meetings with Colangelo.

"That is why we are really happy.

“To be able to have Jorge with us is gratifying because he is a player that has given everything to the national team and he wants to continue to give it."

FIBA