It looks like Garajosa's days are numbered

[Jaimoe]

An interesting article from Dave Feschuk in today's Star:

Garbajosa story unlikely to have a happy ending

There were long faces in the Raptors locker room Wednesday night and the chief brooders weren't the guys who clanked the shots and coughed up the turnovers in a loss to the Utah Jazz.

The saddest eyes belonged to a guy who didn't play a tick, Jorge Garbajosa. A season after being mythologized as a team-first glue guy, the Spaniard appeared well on his way to becoming a woe-is-me, locker-room bring-down.

Garbajosa, still struggling to find his game in the wake of the horrific March injury that fractured his left fibula and shredded his ankle, hasn't played in the Raptors' past two games.

Though he started 60 games last year and contributed gamely to a club that won 47 games, he hasn't shown an ounce of evidence that he remains the indispensable force of a season ago.

Not surprisingly, he hasn't played more than 13 minutes in a single outing this season.

And he hasn't exactly embraced his role as an end-of-the-bench fixture with towel-waving enthusiasm. Instead, he has sulked. It's hard to imagine the story ending well if the pattern continues. Having Garbajosa hang his head isn't helping anyone.

Alas, the solution isn't obvious.

The surgery once recommended by the club's medical staff – the surgery that Garbajosa, acting on advice from the Spanish side of Atlantic, opted against so he could play in September's European championships in his hometown of Madrid – isn't an imminent option.

Doctors, after all, are often loath to cut open patients who claim to be bereft of pain and symptom free, as Garbajosa insists he is.

Still, if his game seems more tentative than it did last year, perhaps it's because his left ankle, when he removed his sneakers the other day, looked to be the size of a small cantaloupe, bloated like the rest of his lower left leg.

And perhaps it's because he is well aware that his fibula, when last x-rayed around the beginning of training camp, still hadn't fully healed.

On a practice court in Italy, Bryan Colangelo, the general manager, told reporters that there was, according to doctors, a "99 per cent chance" that the bone would not mend without further surgery.

So his leg's likely still broken. The infamous $1 million insurance policy that allowed him to play in the European championship is up on Nov. 30.

And after that, since insuring him looks to club insiders like a prohibitively expensive proposition, the team will be on the hook for the approximately $8 million remaining on his contract. And that can't thrill management.

It's a mess that begs revisiting his summertime decision. Why was it so important for him to take the court when his country had already won an automatic berth into the 2008 Beijing Games?

You can make an argument that Garbajosa put his NBA career at risk, and went against his team's vehement wishes, in the name of his ego. He wanted to be a part of a home-soil victory. He wanted to be one of the kings of Madrid for a month. He got at least part of his wish (and a silver medal). Now his career is at a standstill, perhaps as a direct result, and the Raptors are the lesser for it.

If you're a Raptors fan, it's hard to embrace him for putting his team's concerns so far behind his own and his country's. It's not that athletic patriotism isn't fun and stirring and often admirable. But given the circumstances, given his injury, given that the tournament didn't come with Olympic implications, it was, then and now, difficult to see the wisdom in Garbajosa's insistence. If you'd like to glimpse the slump-shouldered consequence, keep an eye on the end of the bench tonight.

[Jaimoe]

He's playing well tonight. Maybe he got read the article.

[Booche]

[Basher]

Now he's out with an "unusual" observation on his MRI. Methinks a hefty medical bill will be presented to the Spanish national team Federation in the coming weeks.

[Jaimoe]

His insurance is up at the end of the month.

[afro poppa]

its a shame that Garbo isn't playing well. Something tells me by the end of the year he is going to be a consistent contributor on the Raps again. The Raps are yet to get a consistent rotation going (although its shaping up) and I think by the end of it Garbo will be in it.

[Jaimoe]

Did you read the article? His leg hasn't healed, plus the organization is pissed that Garbo chose to keep playing for Spain against the advise of the Raptors doctors; and Spain had already qualified for the Olympics, so he further injured his leg for nothing.

[afro poppa]

Yea I read the article.

But if you listen to Garbo he says he's healed and feels no pain so I don't know who to believe. Maybe I am too optimistic for my own good.

[Jaimoe]

I know this, Feschuk is one of the Raps best beat writers and is their ballsiest critic and I believe him.

[afro poppa]

Funny thing is I think the exact opposite of Feschuk, I'm not very fond of him.

[Jaimoe]

I remember listing to The Fan's Prime Time show and they alluded to a Raptors writer that rips the team, but is the only one that has the guts to show his face in the scrums the next day. That writer is Feschuk. Why don't you like him? I know he's a bit pompous and at times too sure of himself (and a fan of his own writings). However, he's on more than he's off. He called the team cowards both for their disgraceful inside game and their do nothing attitude when TJ got hammered in their last game versus Memphis. Can't disagree with that.

[afro poppa]

I think you hit the nail on the head with him being too pompous. Just not my flavour of ice cream...lol if that makes any sense

[Basher]

Now reports are surfacing that Jorge will have season ending surgery.

If this is true, they should find any way possible to get out of his contract. He never should have played in the summer.