The days go by and Gabriel Deck’s arrival in the NBA is still paralyzed. Eleven have passed since his signing was known for the Thunder and six since the franchise of Oklahoma officially announced its incorporation. But no sign of the santiagueño. It’s getting dangerously close the end of the regular phase, which will be the only thing the team plays this year since there is almost no chance of it reaching the championship series, and the debut is not even close.
Marcelo Nogueira (ESPN) made the hare jump this past weekend on the situation of Gabriel Deck. The player still remained in Madrid waiting for the work visa to be arranged, an essential procedure for the employment relationship that, on the other hand, has already been signed. It will have to enter the NBA’s protocol against the coronavirus, which requires a quarantine and negative medical tests, before it can even enter the dynamics of the franchise. No longer play, train. Time is what plays against the former Real Madrid player. The hope of his relatives is that he can be for the last ten games.
His communication team has reported that Deck has requested the number 6 as a number and that, as regards the player’s arrival in the city, events will have to be expected in the coming days.
The season will end for the Thunder, except for a miracle, the May 16. Money, those 3.8 million of dollars for this month of relationship that is extended for another three years (although only the first of those three is guaranteed), you already have it in your account, like the one that says. The problem for him is sporting and cultural. Sporty because he will prefer to make a hole as soon as possible and impress to earn those two guarantee clauses that he has in his contract and also for not lose form in the face of the Olympic Games, since his last game (against Fenerbahce in Istanbul) is one of the best he played with Madrid. Cultural because adaptation is not easy and, where appropriate, the language barrier becomes very high (the only Madrid player who did not appear on television after the Euroleague matches because he could not defend himself in English).
Deck will be the fourteenth Argentine to play the NBA. At the age of 26, this golden opportunity has come to him that, for the moment, has left him paralyzed at the culminating moment of the basketball season.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault spoke about Deck’s situation to the press before facing the Raptors on Sunday. “We would like him to join the team as soon as he can, but there are many problems. There are contractual and COVID things that affect timing. We are at the mercy of other people’s agendas in many of these things.”he said sorry for her absence.
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