Did you hear the news? Carlos Delfino is unhappy in Detroit! You've heard this one before, right? Well, this isn't his same old gripes. This tihe me it looks like he's naming other teams that have inquired about him, and if he isn't traded to another NBA team he even suggests that he'd prefer to simply head back to Europe.
The message boards have been on this for about a week now, but as far as I've seen there hasn't been a peep from the local beat writers. Why? I'm guessing it's at least in part because, like all of Delfino's other controversial interviews, his latest comments were from a Spanish-language article. Here's the original version from AS.com published on Sept. 9, and here's the (brutal) translation from Babelfish. I'm going to provide some translated excerpts below the jump and try to make sense of it all:
The Winterthur Barcelona wants to close the hiring of Argentine eaves Carlos Delfino within the two next weeks. The work of Zoran Savic, sport director of the azulgrana section of basketball, has intensified days in the last and the player is more close.
Savic was present in the Japanese city of Saitama, in the World-wide one recently finalized, negotiating with the agent of the player and people in charge of the Detroit Pistons, club with that Delfino has a year more of contract and a feasible option by the own club for the following one.
Winterthur Barcelona is also known as FC Barcelona, a team that plays in the Spanish ACB league, one of Spain's top professional basketball leagues. Zoran Savic, a former European player, is now Barcelona's GM. So according to this article, Savic traveled to Japan during the recent FIBA World Championships to meet not only with Delfino's agent but also with Pistons officials. (I don't know who from the Pistons was all over there, but at the very least Tony Ronzone was.)
FYI, if Savic wants Delfino to come back to Europe, he has to work out a deal with the Pistons -- the NBA has an agreement with FIBA preventing players under contract in one country to simply leave and play for another. OK, back to the translation...
In the European stage of Delfino, before his march to the NBA, Savic she was the person in charge of his arrival to the Fortitudo of Bologna, coming from the Reggio Calabria, and now he has been the one that has gone the whole hog to obtain that it signs a contract of three years with Barcelona.
Delfino has a wage with the Pistons for this season of 860,500 euros and the azulgrana supply is in the million for this one, increasing of progressive form in the two following ones.
It's true: Delfino opened his professional career in Argentina before going to Italy to play for Reggio Calabria in 2000. Beginning in 2002-03, Delfino played for Bologna. Was Savic behind the move? I can't tell -- but I do see that Savic ended his playing career with Bologna in 2001-02,It's completely irrelevant, but did you take a look at the list of his teammates that season? Nice to see Rumeal Robinson. so it's certainly possible.
Apparently he wants Delfino again, this time offering a three year deal. (And yes, Delfino is due just over $1 million US this year, which is worth roughly 860,500 euros. The Pistons own Delfino's rights in 2007-08, as well.)
On the matter, the Argentinean indicated: "I am wanted to go of Detroit, but they do not want; they do not leave me. I had a supply of Washington and others of Los Angeles and Denver, but Detroit does not want to me to yield in the NBA. If they let to me go, is to Europe. The supply of Barcelona is certain."
To be frank, the Babelfish translation sucks, but you get the picture. Between the Spanish I still remember from high school and college (and using a better word for word online translation tool), it looks like Delfino is flat out saying he wants to leave but Detroit won't let him, even though they've received offers from Washington, LA and Denver. Saying the deal from Barcelona "is certain" means nothing, though. Like I said before, Barcelona still needs Detroit's permission.
What I'm not sure about is if Detroit will still retain Delfino's NBA rights if they let him go back and play in Europe for three years, though it seems to me they would. I sure as hell hope that it doesn't come to it, but if Delfino did leave, well, he's only 24 years old and would still be in the prime of his career three years from now.
At this point, I'd be shocked if Delfino actually did leave. Joe Dumars has heaped a lot of praise on him, and after missing the boat on Memo Okur and Darko Milicic, I like to think that Dumars will do his best to make good on at least one European project, especially considering Delfino's extremely managable salary doesn't make moving him a necessary evil.People seem to forget this, but Dumars knew Okur was good, he just couldn't afford him and re-sign Rasheed Wallace after the 2004 title.
I know it's no longer breaking news when Delfino complains in a Spanish article, but this is a legitimate story if the Pistons really did hold talks with Barcelona and Delfino's agent. Hopefully we'll hear a bit more about this sometime soon.