USA - Gasol denies rift with Grizzlies

SALT LAKE CITY (NBA) - FIBA World Champion Pau Gasol has insisted he "loves being in Memphis" after the Chicago Bulls declared their interest in trading for the reportedly unsettled All-Star.

Speculation has surrounded the Spain international for several weeks, and after Gasol failed to deny requesting a trade when asked by reporters earlier this week, Bulls general manager John Paxson confirmed he was looking at trade options late on Tuesday.

It had been reported that Gasol was unhappy in Memphis as he wanted to be with a playoff contender.

The 7ft center missed the first three months of the season after breaking his foot at the FIBA World Championship in Japan, and returned to find a Memphis team floundering at the foot of the Southwest division.

However, after practice for Wednesday night's game against the Utah Jazz, Gasol voiced his frustration at reports that he has demanded a trade.

"I don't know how long this thing is going to last," Gasol said in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, which reported that Gasol asked the team to consider a trade, but did not present an ultimatum and promised to continue giving his best.

"I love being in Memphis. I'm still here and I'm still competing. For people to second-guess my professionalism and my willingness to work is a real shame. I've been here the longest. I'm loyal to my team. I'm a loyal person. But from what I hear, I'm getting (lambasted). It's unfair.

"Everyone has a right to their opinion, right or wrong. But I'm going to continue to be a professional. I'm a competitor and I like to win. It's been a hard year.

"It's frustrating, but I guess I'm the easy target. Why not blame your franchise player who hasn't said a word about anything? But then some article comes out and now everything changes."

Certainly Gasol's play is not that of a man who has given up. He has averaged 20.2 points, 13.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists in the last five games.

"I'm not the one talking about it, and I'm not going to," Gasol said. "It's silly. It's a lose-lose situation for everybody. I'm going to continue to play hard and defend the Grizzlies shirt until the last of my days. I'm very proud to be a part of this team, and I have been all of my career.

"If (a trade) happens or if it doesn't happen, it doesn't matter. I'm still going to do my best to make this team better," Gasol said.

"I have a big desire to be in a situation where we can compete and have a chance to win every game. If people want to blame me for that, then go ahead. This kind of hurts because it's affecting everybody around this team and we don't need any more negativity.

"Hopefully, these kind of articles will stop, and we'll focus on what we can do to regroup and win basketball games."

Wednesday's Chicago Tribune quoted Paxson as saying he was eager to find a deal for Gasol if possible.

"[His versatility] and his size and his ability to score in the post...we need a guy like that," Paxson said.

"We need somebody with length who can score around the basket and take some pressure off Ben [Wallace]. We do ask Ben to defend a lot of different people and clean up the boards.

"I know our main weakness - we need a [power forward] who can score. It's obvious. I'd like to address that."

However, Chicago could struggle to strike a deal with Memphis. Paxson is reluctant to trade away any of his core group of Team USA guard Kirk Hinrich, Great Britain star Luol Deng, Argentinian Andres Nocioni and Ben Gordon.

"I'm not going to mortgage the organisation," Paxson added. "I have a responsibility to ownership to not give up too much to get that. I'm going to explore whatever we can explore. If not, we're going to have to survive the way we're built right now.

"I have to be careful in terms of how we go about this thing and protecting our future. If there's a deal to be done that makes us better, I'm not going to be conservative.

"But I'm also not going to throw some guys out there haphazardly to get us a player at a spot we need. Ultimately, what would happen then is we'd be back in a similar position at another spot. Then we'd need a small forward or a guard because we've given up too much."

PA Sport