Los Angeles (AFP)
The Spanish pivot Pau Gasol, still not recovering from an operation on the left foot, has not been retained in the membership of the Portland Trail Blazers (NBA) he had yet joined this summer, he said Wednesday .
"As of today, I'm no longer a player on the Blazers team, so I'm going to be able to concentrate all my efforts on my rehabilitation," tweeted Gasol, who will not have played once for the Oregon franchise.
Aged 39, the interior was forced to forfeit the World Cup in China, won this summer by Spain, after having a fracture of fatigue left foot in the spring that prevented him from play the play-offs with Milwaukee, franchise where he tried to rebound after his departure from San Antonio in March.
Determined to play the Tokyo Olympics with his country, after winning silver medals in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, Gasol is not yet ready to retire.
"I have the same enthusiasm and passion for basketball as when I started playing, and I will work as hard as possible on my rehabilitation with a clear goal in mind: to be healthy to play the game that I "love," he said in his video message, recorded at the Blazers training center.
The former two-time NBA champion with the Lakers (2009, 2010) has decided to stay in Portland, where, before becoming a player again, he could join the technical staff as assistant coach Terry Stotts, advance ESPN.
Drafted in 2001 by the Memphis Grizzlies, Pau Gasol has played 18 seasons in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Chicago Bulls San Antonio Spurs and Milwaukee Bucks and has been selected six times at the All-Star Game.
A course worthy of that of the French Tony Parker, the German Dirk Nowitzki and the Argentine Manu Ginobili, with whom he has opened the door to the internationalization of the NBA in the last twenty years.
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