Pau Gasol denies Chicago Bulls rumours – NBA News
Pau Gasol recently made his intentions of staying with the Los Angeles Lakers clear in a statement given to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times.
The All Star forward of the Lakers has been the centre of many trade rumours, but denied asking for any trade from his current team.
“My position is still the same. I still would love to be a part of the Lakers and continue to be here to help the team win more championships as soon as possible. It's out of my control and it's out of my hands, no matter what”
said Gasol.
The statement comes days after Bulls.com journalist Sam Smith had said that sources inside the Lakers team had told him that Gasol wanted to be traded to the Chicago Bulls.
Gasol has been involved in trade rumours throughout the season. He was nearly sent away to Houston Rockets is a trade attempt by the Los Angeles Lakers to land Chris Paul, who was playing for the New Orleans Hornets at that time.
The trade was thwarted by NBA commissioner David Stern and Paul instead went to the Los Angeles Clippers. However, the whole episode must have not gone down well with Gasol and since then, rumours have been afloat linking Gasol to a number of teams.
The Los Angeles Lakers performed poorly in the playoffs for the second straight year after they were pushed to 7 games by the Denver Nuggets in the first round and then defeated 4-1 by a young and explosive Oklahoma City Thunder
team in the 2nd round.
After their exit from the playoffs, it became inevitable that the Lakers would undergo an overhaul in the offseason to make them championship contenders once again. And owing to the already circulating trade rumours, Gasol has
been expected to be the most probable to be traded from Los Angeles.
“I don't know where that came from. It's pointless to really worry about it. I'm totally cool with it, whatever they say. The stories will appear and then disappear on something that does or doesn't happen again. It sucks to be
in that position, but it is what it is,” said Gasol referring to the rumours of him wanting to be traded to Chicago.
Gasol has two years left on his contract with the Lakers, worth $38 million. The Lakers have a huge incentive to trade him away, as it will give them some space in the salary cap. Gasol had a mediocre performance in the playoffs
this year, not the type expected from the All Star power forward.
There were also instances in the playoff series against Denver and Oklahoma City when teammate Kobe Bryant criticised Gasol for lack of aggressiveness in press conference and while talking to reporters. That might not have gone
down well with Gasol as well. But from what he has said in the statement, he seems very happy in the Lakers team.
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