The ‘three’ that the Barça to define definitively his next squad could be the Argentine Gaby deck. The former player of the Real Madrid His continuity in the NBA is not assured and the Barça club is exploring the possibility of signing him, although the operation is very complicated due to various factors. First of all, because Oklahoma city thunder They still have until August 30 to cut their current contract, secondly, because Barça does not have an excessive economic margin to sign him and, thirdly, because the ACB considers that Real Madrid maintains the right of first refusal over the player despite the fact that he paid his termination clause in full last April in order to make the jump to the NBA.
Deck fits the profile of ‘three’ you aspire to Sarunas Jasikevicius to close the current squad, a forward capable of playing ‘three’ and ‘four’, with good defensive skills and a great game in the low post. The Argentine has not managed to complete his Spanish nationalization but that would not hinder his arrival at the Palau, since Barça is only busy, for Cory Higgins, one of its two extra-community positions that the ACB allows in its competitions. The club admits that it is following his case but assures that there is no offer and that we must wait to see if his NBA team decides to keep him or cut him. The first news about Barça’s interest in Deck was advanced by the tweeter @kantinu.
The signing of Deck on the part of the Barça it faces, in addition, to great difficulties. On the one hand, the economic situation of the Barça club. “Now there is no money to sign a three or anything,” he said just a few days ago Jasikevicius in an exclusive interview offered to Mundo Deportivo. The basketball section must wait to see how the cuts in football are resolved to see if it has extra money in the coming weeks.
But the great difficulty is, at the moment, another. According to the ACB, Real Madrid keeps the right of first refusal upon Deck despite the fact that the Argentine paid his full payment in April termination clause (2 million euros), which in theory allowed Deck to be absolutely free to decide his future in the event of a hypothetical return to Spain. The decision of the ACB to include, at the request of Real Madrid, the Argentine in the right of first refusal started a fight between the two parties in June that still continues to this day.
Real Madrid and the ACB grab an adverb to tie Deck’s hands and feet: “simultaneously”. In the wording of article 17.4.5 of the collective agreement between clubs (ACB) and players (ABP) it is stipulated that “the clubs or SAD will lose their rights over the players” in a series of cases, one of which is “due to the termination of the contract by the unilateral will of the player, without cause attributable to the club. In this case, the player or a third party must satisfy the amount of the termination clause simultaneously with the communication to the club of the exercise of this right ”. Deck At the time, he paid the two million euros of his clause but it was within a couple of days because it involved two payments, one made directly by him and the second from the NBA team that was going to hire him, Oklahoma, which like all NBA teams can pay a maximum of 650,000 euros to free a player from another league.
The Real Madrid considered that having received two payments with a certain margin of difference (from the environment of Deck there is talk of two days), the player had no longer done it “simultaneously” with the communication of his decision to leave. The ACB endorsed this interpretation despite Deck’s protests and subsequent intervention by the players union (ABP) it has not managed to change this positioning of club and employer. Keep in mind that what happened with Deck and Madrid (two non-simultaneous payments) has been a constant for years when a player has left the ACB for the NBA given the existence of two payers. Until now no club had blocked the march of a player holding on to that “simultaneously”.
Deck will have the minutes of the recent meeting of the joint committee ACB-ABP, in which the parties failed to unravel the issue. With this document, the Argentine will be able to decide whether to resort to ordinary justice in defense of his interests.
Legal sources consider that the player has won the case, although the problem is that the reason may arrive too late, within months, when the season has already started and the teams have their squads set up.
Deck has the option of signing for a non-Spanish European team, to which the right of first refusal does not apply. Apparently, the interest of the Barça It is not exclusive and there are several Euroleague teams attentive to your situation.
The player, however, would prefer to continue in the NBA and this release to the market is just a way to cover his back and buy time in case the Thunder finally choose to cut him, something that the Argentine environment is not aware of at this time. .