- Interview.Fran Vázquez: "I neither had problems with Gasol nor did they fuck me"
Fran Vázquez, the historic pivot of Spanish basketball, plans to announce this Thursday that he is retiring from the courts after 19 years in the elite.
The 37-year-old Galician has a contract with Casademont Zaragoza until June 2021, however, his intention is to say goodbye to professional basketball due to the physical problems he has been dragging for the past two seasons. If the Endesa League were to resume in the coming weeks, those would be his last professional matches.
He is among the top 10 in the ACB league in number of games, rebounds and blocks , after having played with Casademont Zaragoza, Unicaja de Málaga, Bilbao Basket, Herbalife Gran Canaria, Girona, Barcelona -with which he proclaimed champion of Europe in 2010- and Iberostar Tenerife in the highest national category.
He arrived in Zaragoza, his last stage, in the summer of 2018, coming from Tenerife, as one of the star signings. He always stood out for his intimidating facet, noted for his size and defensive consistency, his rebounding ease, his ability to modify the opponent's shots and his ability to play above the rim. He also scores easily in the paint and even with his medium distance shots.
In the current season, Vázquez has seen his contribution drastically reduced, due to his repeated physical problems. He has participated in 18 Endesa League games, with records of 3.5 points, three rebounds and 3.9 valuation credits per game, in the 12-minute average that he has remained on the track. He has also played nine of the 16 Casademont Zaragoza matches in the Champions League.
Selected in 2005 at No. 11 in the NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic , Vázquez chose to stay in the CBA League instead of making the leap to the best competition in the world, in one of the most controversial decisions of his career.
He has been international with the Spanish team 33 times, with which he played the Eurobasket in 2005 and the 2010 World Cup. He also had a resounding return during the FIBA qualifying windows for the last World Cup, being one of the great protagonists for Sergio Scariolo .
Vázquez, MVP of the 2010 Cup, also has the record for caps in the national competition (738), in a list that is followed by Fernando Romay (671), George Singleton (588), Arvydas Sabonis (528), Sitapha Savané (499) and Harper Williams (459).
For now, he has 656 official Endesa League matches , the last 49 with Casademont Zaragoza, in a list led by Real Madrid player Felipe Reyes, with 809 games.
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