Veteran point guard Goran Dragic, who was traded from the Heat to the Raptors in the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade deal last week, apologized on Monday for comments he made in his home country of Slovenia about the trade, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.
A clip that surfaced on Twitter on Monday of Dragic speaking to Slovenian reporters was accompanied by the English caption, “Toronto is not my preferred destination. I have higher ambitions.” While there was some uncertainty about whether something may have been lost in translation, Dragic didn’t claim he was misquoted. He did tell Grange, however, that the context of the quote was missing.
“I was in the center of the city and the journalists were there and I was asked about Toronto and it was basically taken out of context,” Dragic said. “I told them that I had spent seven years in Miami and that would be the preferred destination for me because my family is there and everything, not Toronto.”
Dragic, who is on an expiring $19.5MM contract, was always expected to be part of the Raptors’ return for Lowry after the Heat picked up his team option, but there was speculation for much of last week that he might be flipped to a third team. The Mavericks were frequently mentioned as a potential destination, since Dallas had been on the lookout for a point guard in free agency and joining the Mavs would give Dragic the opportunity to team up with fellow Slovenian Luka Doncic.
It’s still possible Dragic will be moved to the Mavs or another team at some point, but no deal appears imminent, and he told Grange he’s prepared to spend the 2021/22 season in Toronto.
“My message basically, to all Toronto fans, is I would like to apologize,” Dragic said. “It didn’t come out the right way. I know they love their team, and they should be proud, it is one of the best organizations in the NBA. They’ve already won a championship and I didn’t, so what I said, it really was not appropriate.
“… I’ve always been professional. You can ask a bunch of people. Everywhere I’ve played, wherever I’m going to play, I’m going to be professional and do my job,” he continued. “I love basketball, I love to play and I’m going to give 100% wherever I play. Right now I’m (with) Toronto and that’s my main thing to think about.”
Asked during an appearance on 590 The Fan in Toronto about Dragic, Raptors general manager Bobby Webster cautioned that the 35-year-old’s comments were translated to English and he’d want to “get it directly” from the point guard to understand what he meant, Grange writes. Webster also stressed that the Raptors aren’t a rebuilding team looking to jettison veterans.
“We feel like we’re gonna be competitive, we have a core — as we’ve talked about — that’s been around for a while and has won at the highest level as well,” Webster said. “So think that we’ll just give it some time here to see how (Dragic) would fit in and if he likes it here or not. I think he’s a pro and he’s been around a lot and he’s obviously entitled to wanting to make the most of his years as his career comes down here … so I don’t think it’s in any way a slight or anything like that.”
The Lowry sign-and-trade was officially completed on Friday, so it can no longer be expanded to include a third team, but Dragic could be flipped to a new team immediately as long as his salary isn’t aggregated with another player’s in the deal.
Flip him and draft picks to the Bulls for Lavine and Toronto can start over with him and the Bulls get an expiring contract for a 2 guard and some of their draft capital back. Works for me.
Mike, why would the Bulls do such a trade? That would be some serious outgoing Raptors trade capital to get such a deal done.
Because Lavine is in the last year of his deal and he wants serious money and the Bulls won’t have the cap space next year. They can use the 19 million that Dragic’s expiring deal would bring them to sign a new FA for a more reasonable price and Toronto has the Cap Space to extend him. Everybody wins. Plus they need to extend Vujevic.
They have his bird rights. They can go over the cap to resign him. That’s a horrible trade proposal.
That’s the worst trade since the Gilbert Arenas and Rashard Lewis trade lol
Are you GarPax?
Dude they can literally offer him the max, if they were worried about taxes they wouldn’t have signed DeMar, the Bulls literally have built their team around Lavine so trading him straight up won’t happen. As for Lavine he has already said he is waiting for the Bulls to offer him a new contract, and he is worth the money.
Yea Lavine gets the bulls a lot more than Dragic and picks
Not with only 1 year left on his deal it doesn’t.
Your argument is that Dragic is an expiring contract so that’s appealing to the bulls…. But so is Lavine.
So at worst case, they keep lavine and let him walk and sign someone else or they keep him and have his bird rights and sign him to a larger contract than anyone else can offer.
Lavine is worth a lot more in a trade than that
Bird Rights, those are gold when it comes to resigning your players.
And now you ruined your good comments for the day.
Horrible trade idea for a team that just made some major improvements to compete next year.
Drugs are bad
This is the type of thing that I really cant stand about social media, and I feel bad that Dragic got mixed up in such an unfortunate situation, simply for saying he wished he could be in Miami, for his family. As I’ve previously said, he absolutely fits that Raptors roster, and gives them something they really need. If they add just 1 more shooter, I think they’re going to be potentially really good.
E’twan Moore, Garrison Matthews, Svi Mykhailiuk, Glenn Robinson III all make some sense to me as an option, or there might be a couple of summer league guys worth giving looks to
Anyway, Dragic obviously isnt someone who is going to complain, and he will be a leader there, so hopefully people dont hold something stupid against him. And hopefully, as I’ve said, the Heat can bring him back home next year. Riley made sure he got paid. Obviously that might not be as big of a deal when you might have to be away from your family more often, and Dragic has a young kid, but I think he’ll have a great year for them, if he stays healthy…I know I dont want to match up with them
Hopefully this gets resolved on October 1st as Moses Brown can then be added onto a Dragic trade by Dallas. Other add ons likely to be Brunson and salary fillers.
Why would Dallas trade a 24 year old promising PG for a 35 year declining one? Are the fillers Siakam?
Sounds like what Dragic really meant to say was if he was going to get traded he wanted a team that was going to contend to win it all. Nice PR save though.
Don’t blame the guy for his comments. I understand where he’s coming from and what he meant. Raps are rebuilding and that’s not what he wants at this stage of his career. I’d prefer athletes be truthful like this than the usual crap they feed you about how they’re excited and how they want to stay but in reality they’re planning their exit. Respect for the honesty regardless of who it offends.
Guys lucky as hell he got the option picked up in the first place- He was never in Miami’s plans other than a salary match or being the week old pizza in the fridge for Mia if everything went terribly wrong in free agency or the trade market
He basically got 8~9 mill free money bc he’s “going to have to go play in Toronto for 6 months – Guy wouldn’t have gotten more than full MLE and that’s even debatable
Here’s what you do Dragic …give Toronto 3 weeks of silence, then retire giving them back their 18 mill and it doesn’t make the Lowry trade appear shady (it wasn’t) –
You had your chance in Miami, they wanted better for 2021 …Theres 18 million reasons why my heart doesn’t bleed for you in this article, glad he apologized tho, Mia treated him well on the court and to his bank account
Way to be part of exactly what I was talking about. Goran Dragic is a hall of fame person. He didnt mean it like that
Man stop with the lame excuses
Yea, sure …the apology was just for practice
This is a business, and in many ways he benefited from the trade….Like at least 8~9 mill reasons but the bigger issue for Mia was they wanted more on the court w Lowry….This is how it works, nobody pulled the wool over his eyes and everyone knew Mia’s motives for picking up that (overpaid) 1 yr
deal was to match not for him to run point in Mia
Well did he use the Slovenian word for “ambitious” or didn’t he?
He probably meant, that’s not where I want to end my career, but he does not want that interpretation on record either.
Slovenes, including caption-writers, are liable to be over-confident now do to Oly success.
You know alot of words don’t have 1 to 1 translations between languages
Lost in translation. Dragic has played in the NBA, long enough for the media and fans to know that he’s a class act.
That being said, since the RAPTORS are on a youth movement, it would probably be best if they trade him (always said that he’ll wind up with Luka, before he retires) and get assets better suited to their rosters timeline.
I think he’s a solid player but the “taken out of context” note is a little stale these days. I guess I don’t see what was so wrong with what he said and for the reason you noted.