Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Greg Slaughter finally broke his silence late Thursday night regarding his planned sabbatical from basketball, denying on social media that trade rumors had something to do with his decision.
“There have been a lot of inaccurate theories going around about my recent decision,” he wrote on Twitter late Thursday night, adding that he hadn’t refused any contract extension because no deal was offered in the first place.
The 7-foot big man wrote that he “never received any contract offer,” and that he was unaware of “any trade.”
But a source told the Inquirer that the deal was ready to be made.
“It is not a rumor,” said the insider, who requested anonymity because he isn’t authorized to speak on the issue.
Another league source had earlier told the Inquirer that the trade that would have sent Slaughter to NorthPort for Christian Standhardinger was “a done deal” that was scuttled by Slaughter’s decision to go on sabbatical.
As this developed, another player being mentioned as headed for a high-profile transfer shrugged off rumors of his potential trade and said his focus is to help his team compete this season.
“I’m just doing what is right,” Columbian star CJ Perez said when asked about his name being floated around as a potential trade piece.
“If it comes to that, then it is what it is,” said the first overall pick of the 2018 Rookie Draft and the favorite to win the rookie of the year trophy. “That’s basketball. We can never really secure where we’re headed.”
Perez, one of last season’s top rookies, believes the Dyip is bound to reach uncharted heights this season.
“We’re really doing well in the past tuneups,” he said in Filipino. “We’re just missing a couple of players—Aldrech (Ramos) and Roosevelt (Adams) and we’re still working on our defense.”
Columbian coach Johnedel Cardel has already quashed talk that he was shopping Perez, telling the Inquirer earlier that the prized swingman out of Lyceum will certainly stay with the Dyip.