Marcin Gortat fashioned a solid NBA career but said he does maintain some regrets about a decision he made after being waived by the Los Angeles Clippers, claiming the Golden State Warriors lied to him during the process of looking for a new team.
Asked by HoopsHype if there was anything he regrets about his career, Gortat offered an interesting response.
“I wish that after I was waived by the Clippers, I had gone to the Toronto Raptors,” Gortat said. “They called me six times, and I didn’t go. I could have been an NBA champion today. Instead, I decided to go to Golden State, and they lied to me. They said, ‘No, no, no, we don’t need a big. We’re gonna take this small guy. You gotta take an additional guard.’ And two or three weeks later, they signed Andrew Bogut from the Australian League. That hurt.”
After he was waived by the Clippers in February 2019, Gortat said he had an opportunity to join the Raptors, who went on the win the NBA championship to end that season. He said he also was discussing the chance to join the Warriors, who were trying to win a third consecutive title.
Golden State wound up signing Bogut in March, and he played 11 regular season games for the Warriors before appearing in 19 playoff games. Coincidentally, the Raptors defeated the Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals, but Gortat was on neither team and never played in the NBA again. It also was Bogut’s last season in the league.
Gortat played in 806 regular season games during his 12 NBA seasons that included stints with the Washington Wizards, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic and Clippers. He averaged 9.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while shooting an impressive 55.1 percent from the field. He was able to reach the 2009 NBA Finals earlier in his career with the Magic, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.
He also shared some of his thoughts about the physical liberties some NBA players may have taken during games, saying that some would “grab your balls and squeeze” while boxing out for a rebound.
In a description of questionable tactics, Gortat mentioned current Warriors guard Chris Paul as someone who would grab a leg or punch a player in the “nuts.” Paul joined the Warriors prior to this season despite a sometimes testy history with the team prior to that.
Gortat provides an interesting insight into how the process of joining another team might work for a player looking to do so. Unfortunately for him, it did not work out with an NBA championship as it maybe otherwise could have.
