Jorge Garbajosa signs with Toronto

[furry_spurry]

Raptors Sign Free Agent Jorge Garbajosa

(July 24, 2006) -- The Toronto Raptors announced Monday they have signed free agent forward Jorge Garbajosa (Hor-hay Gar-ba-hosa) to a multi-year contract. Per team policy, financial details were not disclosed.

"Jorge Garbajosa has contributed toward winning at every stop in his professional career,” said Bryan Colangelo, president and general manager of the Raptors. “We anticipate he will bring experience, leadership and toughness to this basketball team.”

Garbajosa, 6-foot-9, 245 pounds, earned a number of honours during his successful European playing career, including 2005 and 2006 Spanish Cup Finals MVP, 2004-05 ACB League Best Five, and 2003 Eurobasket.com Player of the Year and Eurobasket.com All-Euroleague First Team. He led his teams to two Spanish National Cups, one Spanish National Championship, two Italian National Cups, two Italian National Championships, two Italian Supercups, a Saporta Cup and a Spanish Junior Championship.

Garbajosa played the past two seasons with Unicaja Malaga (Spain), helping them to the 2005-06 ACB League championship and Spanish National Cup. He was in the Top 15 in scoring (14.9) and rebounding (6.9) in the Euroleague last season, and averaged 13.3 points and 6.4 rebounds in 42 Spanish League outings, shooting 55 per cent from the field and 81 per cent at the line.

Garbajosa played four seasons (2000-04) with Benetton Treviso (Italy) under Raptors Vice President and Assistant General Manager Maurizio Gheradini and Phoenix Suns Head Coach Mike D’Antoni. He won two National Cups, two Super Cups and two National Championships with Benetton. He averaged 13.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and a Euroleague-best 2.85 steals en route to 2002-03 All-Euroleague First Team honours.

Garbajosa began his career playing with Tau Vitoria (Spain) from 1995-2000. He has also represented Spain in two Olympics (2000 and 2004) and one World Championship (2002), where he was a teammate of Raptors guard Jose Calderon.

http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/pres...sa_072406.html

In this period of radical change, the Raptors have been acquiring equal measures of youth, quickness and athleticism and now hope they have moved to address another glaring need on the roster: Toughness.

In Jorge Garbajosa, who officially became a Raptor yesterday when the paperwork on a three-year contract worth nearly $12 million (all figures U.S.) was finally completed, the team has obtained a grizzled veteran of European basketball who is expected to make his money doing the dirty work that every good team needs.

"He's a guy who's not afraid of fighting anybody," Toronto assistant general manager Maurizio Gherardini said. "He's got the size to go against guys in the paint without being afraid of anybody."

The 6-foot-9, 245-pound Garbajosa, who just completed a championship season with Spain's Unicaga Malaga, said in a conference call yesterday he's willing to play whatever kind of tough-guy role the Raptors envision for him.

"I like to play hard, play tough," the 29-year-old said. "I will like to play the same here.

"For me, it's the most important step of my career. The Toronto Raptors gave me the opportunity to play in the best league in the world ... I like the team, I like the city and I want to be part of it."

Garbajosa is expected to fill a role as backup power forward and centre with the Raptors, who previously obtained top draft pick Andrea Bargnani, point guard T.J. Ford and guard Fred Jones to fill the youth, quickness and athleticism quota. John Salmons, who backed out of a deal to join the Raptors, signed with Sacramento yesterday.

Gherardini didn't want to compare Garbajosa's talents to anyone else because the executive sees them as unique.

"You will see a veteran guy, a guy who knows all the tricks," said Gherardini. "I think he could play both the four and five positions. He gives us a lot of flexibility."

Success has followed Garbajosa around throughout his 11-year European career, which included four seasons playing for Gherardini at Benetton Treviso of the Italian League.

Garbajosa is coming off back-to-back seasons in which he was named the MVP of the Spanish League finals. Teams he has played on have won two Spanish national cups, a Spanish national league championship, two Italian cups, national les and Supercups as well as a Spanish junior championship.

He was named to the Spanish league all-star team in 2005 and was a 2003 Euroleague all-star as well as being named the 2003 European player of the year by Eurobasket.com. He has played in two Olympics and is working out in preparation for next month's world championships.

"One of the qualities of Jorge ... has always been the fact he's always been a true leader on his team," said Gherardini. "He's probably the key player on the Spanish national team, he's a quiet leader, a leader by example."

Garbajosa will have some familiar faces around him when he arrives for Raptor training camp in October. He's been a long-time teammate of Jose Calderon with the Spanish national team, was a teammate of Bargnani at Benetton and has played against Rasho Nesterovic and Uros Slokar at various international tournaments.

When the opportunity to join the Raptors came up, one of the first conversations Garbajosa had was with Calderon.

"He said I'll be comfortable with the fans, the city, with everything," Garbajosa said.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...d=968867503640

[Bruno]

And GM's madness continues ...

$12M/3 year for Garbajosa is crazy :
He is just an old unathletic 6'7" PF.