Bolmaro and Campazzo, the two Argentines who are increasingly sounding louder in the NBA

Mauricio Codocea

08/08/2020 - 19:34

• Clarín.com
• sports

While the NBA continues its good march in the Orlando bubble and remains almost on the sidelines of the thousands of Covid-19 infections in the United States, there are Argentine basketball players who are preparing to start training in Europe but who have an eye or a heard put in North America. Specifically, Facundo Campazzo and Leandro Bolmaro, the two who sound the loudest to reach that league and return a presence that was lost with the departure of Manu Ginobili in 2018.

For the Real Madrid point guard the situation is not simple but there is optimism. The clause of six million euros that should be paid to the Spanish team to go to the NBA is an impediment, since a franchise of the American league by regulation can only put 725,000 dollars; In other words, the rest should come out of the pocket and the player's potential contract with the North American team that signed him.

Luis Scola, for example, reached this solution when he signed for Houston, who advanced money from his contract so that he could pay the clause to Baskonia, then known by the commercial name of Tau Cerámica.

In the last hours, for the first time the name of the Cordovan touched the doors of journalism with more arrival at the offices of the league and franchises. "Campazzo's move to the NBA in October free agency has never been closer," wrote NBA strongman Marc Stein in The New York Times .

On a City v Real Madrid day, this Facundo Campazzo update seems appropriate:

Campazzo's move to the NBA in October free agency has never looked more likely, league sources say

Real has known for three months, sources say, that the Argentinean playmaker plans to go to the NBA

Campazzo has something clear: just as he is totally determined not to play in Spain anymore to make the great leap of his career, he wants to leave on good terms, without breaking a relationship with an institution to which he is grateful and that, in short, It helped him catapult himself as one of the best in the world at his position.

Therefore, his representative, who is still the Argentine Claudio Villanueva despite the fact that the player was recently announced as an addition to the Octagon company portfolio, a top company that has in its ranks the former NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Stephen Curry, It is working hard to reach a peaceful solution with the Merengue leadership .

Facundo Campazzo during the definition of the last ACB League in Spain. (Photo: EFE)

Bolmaro, for his part, arouses the interest of multiple teams. More than, at the time, what Manu Ginobili and Luifa Scola generated , both always closely followed by San Antonio but almost without a sign against the rest of the franchises.

It is true that back in the early 2000s, the "internationality" of the NBA was not what it is today, with more than 100 foreign players. But ultimately, none of them managed to sneak even among the top prospects. Bolmaro, for his part, is even considered to be a first-round pick, something that only Carlos Delfino achieved among the Argentines.

And the interest is really shocking. In recent weeks, the Cordovan from Las Varillas, who started the preseason with Barcelona this Saturday, held video calls with almost 20 league franchises who sought to know a little more about him. He has his podium of preferences, of course, and his list - kept under seven keys - makes a lot of sense for these parts. Of course, nothing guarantees that one of those teams will select you.

🏀 Saras Jasikevicius's Barça will start on August 8 with a group made up mainly of young people

📆 The rest of the first team players will return on August 15https: //t.co/CrKIvzYhSF pic.twitter.com/FBcA19zP61

There may be more details regarding which franchise could choose him when the championship ends and the draft lottery takes place, which decides the first three elections by lottery. The rest are ordered inversely proportional to the location in the season, that is, with the worst teams choosing first.

In the mock drafts (simulated drafts) of multiple specialists, Bolmaro appears definitively in the first round, where according to his relatives he will be chosen "except for a catastrophe." It usually varies, depending on who draws up the list, between positions 15 and 30, although there is more and more consensus regarding that first round.

Until some time ago, for some, he could fall to the second half of the draft, something that would complicate things since the team that selects him will not necessarily guarantee a contract but will keep his rights.

Regardless of his choice, it will be necessary to see if he makes his arrival to the team that chooses him this year. He could, eventually, be left in Barcelona to acquire one more shooting tournament, an idea that the player does not dislike as long as he has more minutes than in the previous season, when he was a spare coin and sailed between the first team and Barça B. .

The above (and the drafts)

A total of twelve Argentines have passed through the NBA: Juan Ignacio Sánchez, Rubén Wolkowyski, Ginobili, Carlos Delfino, Andrés Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, Walter Herrmann, Scola, Pablo Prigioni, Nicolás Laprovittola, Patricio Garino and Nicolás Brussino.

Carlos Delfino and James Harden in Houston. (Photo: AP)

Only three of them were chosen in the drafts: Manu (San Antonio, 57th in 1999), Luifa (San Antonio, 56th in 2002) and Lancha (the only one to be chosen in the first round, ranked 25th by Detroit in 2003) .

But there were others who were also selected by a franchise and did not make their debut in the NBA: they are Jorge El Gigante González (the first chosen, in position 54 of 1988 by Atlanta), Hernán el Loco Montenegro (Philadelphia, 57th in 1988), Marcelo Nicola (Houston Rockets, 50th in 1993), Federico Kammerichs (Portland, 51st in 2002) and Juan Pablo Vaulet (Charlotte, who transferred him to Brooklyn after choosing him 39th in 2015).

MFV