Always during the off-season—as well as the days leading up to the end of a competitive season—there is often a beautiful, little, and… chaotic frenzy. Rumors, approaches from teams to players, player proposals from agents to teams, a merry-go-round of departures, total rebuilds… And then there is Barcelona!
What happened this summer with the Catalans is certainly unprecedented. We will talk about two cases. First, Moses Wright and then Ibon Navarro. Starting with the center, who introduced himself to Europe wearing the Olympiacos jersey in the middle of the 2023/2024 season, we will observe something unrepeatable.
First, it should be noted that he had stated to SKWEEK, on the sidelines of the Stoiximan AegeanBall Festival last June, that the plan was to continue his career at Barça, without, however, presenting it as a done deal. The American must have known something, as shortly after, a paradoxical and unusual development followed, not only by European standards but also by those of… global basketball!
More specifically, Wright had signed a two-year contract with Barcelona, but the agreement included a €900,000 buyout clause. Seeing the uncertainty on the bench and in the team’s management, he activated it before even being announced and will continue—barring any surprises—at Armani Milan.
Speaking of uncertainty on the bench, we are not mentioning it by chance. An equally strange situation had preceded with the coach of Malaga, Ibon Navarro, who has excelled in recent years with Unicaja. The case of the Spanish coach with Barcelona, however, had a special condition. The agreement was conditional and would only be activated if Pascual left and Barcelona gave the final approval.
The “Blaugrana” delayed in clarifying the situation and Navarro, instead of waiting, accepted the offer from Crvena Zvezda. To leave Unicaja, the buyout clause of approximately €300,000 was activated, which allowed him to leave for a EuroLeague team.
In Greek slang, we could say that this situation constitutes a spectacular “blunder” by Barcelona. That is, they went to sign an elite coach—without underestimating their current one, Aleksander Sekulic—and a versatile big man, both highly discussed in the market, and somehow managed to lose them.
Visca Barca!