The NBA season officially ended on Sunday night when the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the 2020 NBA Finals, but for weeks, we’ve been speculation as to whether Chris Paul has played his final game for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Maybe we should have been asking the same of Danilo Gallinari?
Gallinari is a pending free agent who, like Paul, is in the latter stages of his career. And like Paul, Gallinari has proven to still be an effective player in his own right. The Miami Heat unsuccessfully sought to add him to its squad back in February, but it obviously didn’t happen.
One can only wonder if Gallinari had some regrets about the entire situation.
Having just turned 32 years old, the Italian sharpshooter knows that he doesn’t have many more opportunities to win a championship, and during an appearance in his native Italy, Gallinari reportedly said exactly that.
Appearing at “Il Festival dello Sport,” (translated to English as “The Sports Festival”) over the weekend, Gallinari was quoted by Sportando as having the following exchange with one of the moderators of the event:
Danilo Gallinari talked about his future during the “Festival dello Sport” in Italy:
Moderator: “Is playing for the NBA Championship more important than a contract?”
Gallinari: “Yes. At this time, yes. I’m not twenty anymore.”
While the report itself is rather sparse, Sportando is a respected international publication that has broken plenty of basketball news over the years. Additionally, Gallinari’s stance is certainly understandable. If anything, it’s predictable, and it certainly underscores a recurring theme for many players who do not wish to spend the final years of their careers in rebuilding situations. Players like Chris Paul, for example.
The major difference between Paul and Gallinari, however, is that Gallinari is an unrestricted free agent who can sign with whatever team he chooses. According to basketball-reference.com, Gallinari’s career earnings are just slightly less than $140 million. While he could probably command a pretty hefty salary on the open market, though, is nothing else, his words suggest that he would be willing to accept a little less to join a contending team.
If true, that would all but certainly ensure his departure from Oklahoma City, as the Thunder appears to be more focused on the future than the present. One of the few things the club could offer him to entice him to rebuff overtures from the likes of contending teams looking for shooting in their frontcourt would be a bigger payday…
But as Gallinari himself said, that might not be enough to win him over.