Marc Gasol will be a free agent next year. Currently he’s playing at a very high level. And if some teams were skeptical on him they definitely want him now. Several teams have already shown interest and we’re not even into 2015 yet.
But for some reason. Gasol is not looking forward to free agency. As Ian Thomsen of NBA.com covers.
All of this is coming together in the final year of Gasol’s contract. Next summer he will emerge as the most valuable free agent on the market. He does not sound as if he is looking forward to it.
“I’ve been already through one,” he says of the summer of 2011, when as a restricted free agent he re-signed with the Grizzlies for $58 million over four years, “and I did not especially enjoy it. I don’t know how I’m going to feel in July. I really don’t. This is the next five years of my life and I’m going to go all in. Whatever team you play for, you’ve always got to feel like you represent that team, that you’ve got to play for it. Because that’s the way we grew up in Spain. You play for the city. You play for a way of doing things. It’s not about you. I do this for them. I play for the city, for the franchise or whatever. You’ve got to have that pride that comes with it.”
Do not misunderstand. Gasol is not complaining about the money and attention that is going to be thrown at him. “I’m pretty thankful for everything that happened,” he says. What he is talking about has nothing to do with wealth or fame. This is about him seizing control of his life story. His goal is to sell it to a certain demographic.
But that still leaves the question. If he is not the fondest of the Free Agency process, why not just extend your contract with Memphis? I’m getting the feeling that he just wants to be pampered a little bit.
That’s probably not his motive, but I am getting that sense. This seems pretty cut and dry. If you don’t like the process. Stick with what you know and most importantly, who you know.
