到底你們發完夢沒有？天天想著Splitter會來馬刺，人家根本不想來
Real Madrid start push for Splitter
The Brazilian Center is the Ettore Messina’s first option for next season
The team is ready to tempt the player with a superstar contract and Baskonia with an offer they can’t refuse.
by DAVID ORTEGA
VITORIA. A team that handles budgets the size of banks can get anything they want. It can create a galaxy of players in just one summer, or attract to them the best players on the continent. Included those that have burning in their skin the NBA logo, like Tiago Splitter. The brazilian center, whose appearance against Khimki next Thursday is still undecided, is the new and primary target of a ball club that last Sunday saw how the ever powerful Barcelona went right through them like a bulldozer. According to we could learn, Real Madrid started to grease the wheels during this King’s Cup to complete a transfer that could end up with the number five baskonista in Madrid by the end of the season, propelled by an Ettore Messina that’s conscious that in the bigger desk in the Bernabeu there’s a man willing to please him.
It won’t be easy. The dream of playing in the best league in the world is still very important for Splitter, but his youth -he turned 25 in January- grants him an opportunity to delay two or three more seasons before he jumps the ocean to a franchise -the San Antonio Spurs- that has been adamant to have his services immediately. But Madrid is ready to start a fiery money fight so the best center in Europe can wear the white jersey alongside his friend Pablo Prigioni. And all because of the express desire of the italian coach, who has placed the name of the player from Joinville atop the list of reinforcements for his team. He did it a while ago, even before the final displayed that while the team can play great in batches -like they did against Bsokonia- it still lacking in interior presence. After spending countless money to compete against the catalan team, Florentino Perez now has to face the reality that his pupils have just been publicly humiliated in the BEC while they’re barely standing in the Top 16.
The president of Real Madrid ended up missing out last summer on Ricky Rubio, the Cristiano Ronaldo of basketball, when he signed a 3,7 million euros contract with Barcelona. Even though basketball is not the biggest sport in the club, Perez would be willing to spend the money required to shake up the market and delay Splitter’s arrival in the NBA. In exchange, Splitter would receive a contract that would clearly place him as the best Euroleague number five, with the exception of Nikola Pekovic. And it’s precisely the ultra complete serbian player that could break the assault Madrid is attempting to get Splitter.
The Panathinaikos player still has one more year in his contract in Greece, but his future is getting closer and closer with the Minnesota Timberwolves who drafted him in 2008. If Pekovic finally packs up his bags and goes to the Minneapoils franchise, PAO has the brazilian also in their short list, even though in Athens they claim that another man from Belgrade, Aleks Maric, would be the one to replace Pekovic in the paint. Nevertheless, the Splitter soap opera is starting to take shape. Even thought the blue and red captain has a contract ending in 2012, his contract has a clause that establishes an early exit at the end of this season. If the destination is the NBA, then the amount to pay is about 1 million dollars. If he stays in Europe, that amount gets substantially higher. But for a man that pays 94 million euros for a soccer player, any amount that that’s a single digit next to the word millions is really pocket change.