It is not entirely correct to say that there is a Hezonja case, because there has been one all season. The Croatian forward (29 years old) who arrived at Real Madrid in the summer of 2022 ends his contract and has not renewed. This situation has obviously made him one of the most attractive pieces on the market in European basketball, a top-level player who is on his way to being released in the summer. It has caused internal rumors at Real Madrid, something almost inevitable as the negotiations have dragged on without reaching a successful conclusion. There has been talk that he has not been happy with the financial proposals and that he would like to have a more important role than the one Chus Mateo gives him in Madrid’s (long) rotation. There have been moments in which he has seemed more out than in for the next season, others in which the agreement did not seem so far away…
Anyway, it has already rained in that case Hezonja that it does exist. A player in a similar (unstable) situation to that of Edy Tavares, who however seems, in his case, closer to an imminent solution that extends his stay at Real Madrid. Hezonja? There isn’t much more news, at least as far as his current team is concerned. So other things come up. The last one, with bombshell status: the program Radiogaceta de los Deportes, on Radio Nacional, claims that Hezonja has a proposal from Barça that would make him the best paid player in the Euroleague “by far.” The public channel contacted the Barça club, which did not want to confirm or deny the contacts, something that can already be interpreted as significant. He simply assured that he is combing the forward market for the next season (in principle, Kalinic will not continue) and, yes, he clarified that he will not increase the budget, reduced this season due to the club’s global economic situation. So in no case would I make, neither for Hezonja nor for anyone else, an offer in the highest possible salary range in Europe.
Real Madrid, PAO, Barcelona…
The rumors had already emerged from around Barça. There was talk of an agreement in principle between Hezonja and Barça, in economic terms that were not so high in any case and with the blessing of a player who would not be satisfied (something that is obvious right now due to the lack of agreement) with how he has managed Real Madrid’s contractual situation. Hezonja has been strongly linked to Panathinaikos, where he played in 2021, when he returned from the NBA, and a club in which he left part of his heart. He has publicly stated that he would love to return, and even when he played this season at OAKA he made gestures to the green fans that were interpreted as saying, “See you in the future.” The PAO, which returns to the Final Four this year twelve years after the last one, is in an ambitious rearmament plan, so an interest that the Athens club has done nothing to hide fits perfectly.
Hezonja has even considered a new jump to the NBA, despite the fact that he came away very dissatisfied with his first experience in the United States. Number 5 in the draft in 2015, he had a bad experience in his years (2015-2021) in a competition in which he did not find his place and did not feel comfortable (he played for Magic, Knicks and Trail Blazers). He had arrived from Barcelona, who later did not want to take him over even though they had the rights to him when the Croatian decided to return to Europe. So he played for Panathinaikos as his first stop in Europe, and then he went to UNICS Kazan, which was being one of the sensations in the 2021-22 season until it was expelled from the competition due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His next destination was Real Madrid, where he signed in the summer of 2022 for two seasons.
After winning the Euroleague last summer, there were rumors that he could leave, but he made it clear that he would fulfill the second year of his contract in Madrid while the green shadow of Panathinaikos lengthened. Now there is also interest, and it seems there is an offer, from Barcelona. A return that would be very morbid due to his scale in Madrid and because it did not sit well with him that the club did not have him when he decided to leave the NBA. He had been a Barça player since 2012, when after winning the Junior Euroleague with Zagreb he signed for three seasons. As a Barça player, he was elected Rising Star of the LEB Oro with the reserve team, and later took steps in the first team under the guidance of Xavi Pascual, with whom it ended up being rumored that he had not had a good relationship, which ended. having very serious communication problems. The Dubrovnik coach has denied this. He also made it clear in an interview for AS that he had not had any trouble with the Gavá player: “Things always went very well with him, he helped me a lot, he talked to me as much as he could and I didn’t stop learning. . A great coach with a lot of authority in the club and that suited me well.”
At Barça he left flashes of super class without, still very young, continuity. In a game against Manresa (February 2015) he scored 8/8 in triples. In the 2014-15 Euroleague he averaged 7.7 points and 2 rebounds. But later, before completely breaking into a star with Barça, he made the leap to the NBA, where he continued to play as a Barcelona player. When they asked him on Twitter if he would play for Real Madrid, he gave an answer that later, a few months ago, disappeared from his official account: “Lol, Barça forever, friend!” That changed later, when he had to return and did not do so to a club that had the rights to him in Europe, with a price of 400,000 euros for his freedom. At the Palau they were looking for a forward… but with a different profile, so they renounced the rights of a player who went to UNICS, and played at his best competitive level (14.2 points and 6 rebounds). His next destination was Real Madrid, where he arrived at an ideal moment in his career to contribute as a very solid player on the court, both in defense and attack, with traces of the star that he always aimed to be and, furthermore, already with rested veteran character in the locker room.
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2024-05-11 10:09:41
#Barcelona #Hezonja
