Raúl López viajará el martes a Utah para firmar por los Jazz
El base de Vic pactó la rescisión con el Madrid
Julián Felipo / BARCELONA
15/07/02 03:00 h.Raul López verá hecho realidad su sueńo y se convertirá esta misma semana en el segundo jugador catalán que ingresa en la NBA. Los Utah Jazz esperan la llegada del base de Vic a Salt Lake City mańana martes después de que se hayan solventado ya las diferencias existentes con el Real Madrid para la rescisión de su contrato.
Según anunció el portavoz de la franquicia, los Jazz mandaron ayer mismo a un representante a Madrid para recoger al jugador y acompańarlo en su viaje hacia Estados Unidos. Allí será donde ultimará los trámites para firmar un contrato por tres temporadas y ser presentado a los medios de comunicación.
El acuerdo entre López y el Real Madrid supone una rebaja sustancial de la cláusula de rescisión de 5 millones de dólares que tenía fijada el jugador en su contrato. A cambio de ello el club blanco mantendrá sus derechos en caso de retorno a Europa. En concreto, López tendrá que abonar poco más de un millón y medio de dólares, una cifra similar a la que desembolsó el Madrid cuando decidió contratarlo procedente del Joventut de Badalona. Los Jazz tan sólo podrán contribuir con 350.000 dólares por las restricciones en fichajes que imponen las normas de la NBA. Para cubrir el resto, Raúl ha recurrido a préstamos a través de sus representantes.
La contratación de López por los Jazz no da margen alguno a la negociación ya que al tratarse de un jugador debutante el convenio colectivo establece casi exactamente la duración y cifras del acuerdo. En su condición de número 24 del draft, Raul percibirá unos 2.68 millones de dólares por las tres temporadas garantizadas que tendrá en el equipo de Salt Lake. La franquicia se reserva el derecho a realizar una extensión de su contrato para el cuarto y quinto ańo.
López tendrá que someterse a un exhaustivo reconocimiento médico para comprobar que se halla totalmente recuperado de la lesión de ligamentos que le obligó a pasar por el quirófano la pasada temporada y le tuvo apartado de las canchas durante medio ańo. Una vez consiga el OK de los médicos y rubrique el acuerdo, podría estar disponible para participar en la Rocky Mountain Revue, la liga de verano de Utah, que se celebra del 19 al 27 de este mes. Una vez concluida su participación en este torneo regresará a Espańa para incorporarse a la concentración de la Selección espańola, a partir del día 31.
A sus 22 ańos, Raúl López está llamado a ser el recambio del incombustible John Stockton en los Jazz. Recientemente, el presidente de la franquicia, Larry Miller manifestó su esperanza que este ańo de convivencia entre ambos jugadores propicíe un relevo sin traumas en el puesto de base
dehogy jár úgy!!!!
MIvel mi bent vagyunk a PLayOFF-ban!!!!!
UTAH!!!
Kings 86, Jazz 93
4/23/2002 Arco Arena, Sacramento, Ca. Time of Game: 2:33
Officials: #27 Dick Bavetta , #24 Mike Callahan , #58 Monty McCutchen Attendance: 17317
Jazz
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-A 3GM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS
JOHN STOCKTON G 39 4-9 0-0 5-5 0 4 4 12 3 2 1 0 13
BRYON RUSSELL G 27 5-11 2-4 0-0 2 1 3 2 6 1 3 0 12
ANDREI KIRILENKO F 42 4-7 0-1 7-10 2 4 6 3 3 2 2 5 15
KARL MALONE F 39 6-15 0-0 6-6 1 11 12 4 3 0 3 1 18
TOTAL 240 30-87 3-22 23-27 15 26 41 14 35 9 15 4 86
34.5% 13.6% 85.2% Team Rebs: 10 Total TO: 15
TEAM STATISTICS
Jazz Kings
Fast Break Pts 13 Fast Break Pts 15
Points in the Paint 32 Points in the Paint 42
Biggest Lead 18 Biggest Lead 3
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After the blue lights during the pregame intros had been turned off, after the sweat had been mopped off the floor, after the emotions of the fans here in Sacramento's Arco Arena had been tossed into a blender for 48 minutes on Saturday, after the Kings and Jazz had sumo wrestled and belly-bronced and played Twister with each other through an entire playoff game, flopping and scrumming and colliding, after the Jazz failed to tie the score with two clear shot attempts in the closing seconds, including a three-pointer by John Stockton that dipped into the throat of the basket and then swirled around the rim like a Spalding on a string, after the Jazz had lost 89-86 when another Stockton three barely missed the bottom of the net as time finally huffed and puffed and sputtered out, something was restored to the losers.
Breath. (Whew, take a few.)
And renewal.
And confidence.
And hope.
Take anything within grasp.
Most of the Jazz players contradicted themselves after Game 1 of their first-round playoff series with the Kings. They said they could find little promise in a loss, that moral victories are for chumps and losers, not them. But then they acknowledged, in some cases unwittingly, that, as Karl Malone put it, "We know we can play with these guys."
That, indeed, was a revelation.
Malone, who had 25 points and nine rebounds, said a few paragraphs in front of that statement, though, in the postgame locker room that "there's no consolation in being close. You still have to go out and win. What do we learn from a game like this? Nothing."
Stockton (10 points, 12 assists) echoed those sentiments, only more succinctly, saying: "You can't find a lot of satisfaction when you lose . . . it's contagious."
The stone-faced veteran paused to consider the depth of disdain he had for the miserable thought.
And then he added, sneering with even more contempt: "We just have to go back to work tomorrow."
Stockton wasn't giving an inch.
But his team grubbed what it could by way of respectability, stopping just short of a win, in Game 1.
And, truth be told, there were things other than victory to take from the experience.
Coming in, the Jazz were dead meat, and everybody knew it.
The Kings had beaten them in all four meetings -- by an embarrassing 23-point average -- during the regular season. Nobody was picking them in this series, and many NBA observers figured it to be a sweep. How else could they figure it?
The Jazz had stunk against Sacramento, too frequently cowering in those huge beatings. They barely rated as speed bumps to the Kings' high-powered roadster in this matchup, even in the minds of their own fans.
And that's exactly the way it went for the first 11 minutes on Saturday. Sacramento jumped to a 10-point lead midway through the first quarter, laughing as they ran the break.
But then something strange happened.
The Jazz fought back.
They rebounded.
Figuratively, and literally.
They scrapped and they hustled.
They scored 19 second-chance points to Sacramento's one.
And the bench elevated its lowly self, ultimately outboarding and outscoring the Kings' reserves, 25 rebounds to two and 41 points to 11.
Buoyed by a lineup including Rusty LaRue, Greg Ostertag, Scott Padgett, Quincy Lewis and Donyell Marshall, the Jazz clawed their way back, fighting crowd noise that sounded like a fleet of 747s taking off, and working harder than the Kings in the early going. They took the lead with just over seven minutes left in the second period, and went toe-to-toe and cheek-to-cheek with the Kings the rest of the way.
It looked like one part war and one part prom.
Bodies were repeatedly clumped together, sometimes in earnest combat and sometimes in faux battle. One encounter featured Chris Webber and Jarron Collins waltzing and bear-hugging at the Jazz's end, conjuring, maybe for the first time in an NBA playoff game, lyrics from the otherwise forgettable Captain and Tenille song, "Muskrat Love."
They whirled and they twirled and they tangled.
Ugh.
The score stayed close, too.
A handful of points separated the teams right down to the last sequence, when the Jazz had three good looks at three-pointers that would have either given them the lead or tied the game in the final moments.
None of them went in.
None of them won the game.
But the Jazz showed desire and pluck in falling, a first against the Kings this season. And then pretended not to be satisfied with mustering a good fight on a floor where the favorite had nearly been unbeatable, by any team.
"We're professionals," said Marshall, who had 11 points and 10 rebounds. "There's no such thing as a moral victory in the playoffs. But we did find some confidence."
A valuable discovery.
"We gave it our best shot," Ostertag said. "That's what we have to do every game. We know we got blown out by them in the games before. Now, after this, we know we can beat them."
At least, they think they know.
"This franchise has won too many games in the past, has gone too far in the playoffs before, to start talking about moral victories now," said Padgett, who made four of five shots. "That moral-victory thing is B.S."
Perhaps.
Still, the only things that can be said of the Jazz in these playoffs are:
They showed some mettle.
They did not embarrass themselves.
They caught their breath with honor.
It may not be much, it may be -- as Malone said, "nothing" -- but, after Game 1, it's all the Jazz are left with.
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