UPDATE:
Leandro Barbosa denies this report:
The original report is below:
***
Leandro Barbosa was a last-minute signing, joining the team after they already had a full stable of guards.
Predictably, Barbosa has been relegated to mostly a bench role, which, despite the glut of guards on the roster, he didn’t quite see coming and apparently has made him unhappy.
This comes from ESPN Brazil. For those of you Portuguese speakers, Barbosa says
“Não vou mentir para vocês, tentei sair daqui várias vezes, mas o Danny Ainge (gerente geral da franquia) não quer deixar eu ir embora. Ele é um cara que vem admirando meu basquete há muitos anos. Era para eu ter conseguido um bom contrato com o Boston Celtics, mas não aconteceu. Ele não vai me deixar ir embora assim, não”, revelou o brasileiro.
Run that through Google Translate, and you get the gist of what he’s saying.
“I will not lie to you, I tried to get out several times, but Danny Ainge (general manager of the franchise) does not want to let me go. He’s a guy that comes admiring my basketball for many years. I was supposed to have got a good contract with the Boston Celtics, but did not. He will not let me go so no,” said the Brazilian.
Apparently, Barbosa is being pursued by Brazilian professional teams and may be looking for an out to play professionally back home.
This, of course, comes a night after Doc admittedly should have played him more to give the team a spark when it was clearly flat-lining. Personally, I’m happy to have Barbosa in our back pocket as insurance against an injury or to use in a “break glass in case of sleepwalking” emergency.
But if he truly wants out to go home, I’ve got to think that at some point Danny might oblige. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.
Thanks to reader MJ who posted the link in the comments
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