NEWSLETTER
Have you ever ruined a family vacation? Maybe you forgot your passport. Or you never actually bought that plane ticket. Or, oh shoot! I was supposed to book the hotel, that’s right. Yeah, I think that’s how Gary Payton II might feel right about now (not that it’s actually his fault!).
In a combined effort with Anthony Slater, Shams Charania reports that a four-team deal between the Warriors, Pistons, Hawks, and Trailblazers, which would have brought Gary Payton II to Golden State, is now in jeopardy because of Payton’s failed physical.
“Gary Payton II — the Warriors high-profile trade deadline acquisition — could miss two-to-three months after a core muscle issue showed up in his physical on Friday morning, league sources confirmed to The Athletic …. The Warriors ruled him as a failed physical on Friday, and have until Saturday to go through with the deal as a technical pass of the physical or rescind the entire trade.”
Gary Payton II was reportedly playing through pain in Portland, at the insistence of the Blazers training staff, who had been “pushing him to gut through it” while giving him shots of Toradol, a drug used for short-term pain management. None of that, the reporting goes, was relayed to the Warriors during the negotiation process. Obviously, I don’t know any further details than what’s just being reported right now, but on the surface, that’s pretty gross. From the training staff pushing a player to play through pain to a front office hiding a potential injury from their negotiating partner.
I also think that’ll make teams a little more reluctant to trade with Portland in the future. I know it would concern me.
So what happens now? Well, one (likely) path is a complete reversal of the deal. But it’s also reportedly possible that they’ll re-work the terms to come to a new agreement. However, I can tell you right now that a four-team trade with so many players (and picks!) changing hands is mighty complicated to pull off the first time around. Doing it again, under the pressure of a 24-hour deadline … I just don’t know if I see it happening.
We’ll update this post as soon as we know more. In the meantime, Charania has more details on the original deal, the specifics of the breakdown, and what could come next right here.
