There will be no Pau Gasol in a Portland uniform sight-seeing. The Spanish center has been waived by the Portland Trail Blazers per reports from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The move, however, won’t mean that he will be leaving the team.

The older brother of Toronto Raptors’ Marc also posted on his Twitter account a video, telling his fans the reason behind him being out of the Blazers’ roster, who just recently added Carmelo Anthony. He also shared about the status of his injury that kept him on the sidelines.

“I underwent surgery in hopes that it would expedite my return, but unfortunately in the last few days we have assessed that my recovery is going to take longer than we had originally hoped for,” said the 39-year old. He also shared his plans of staying with the team, although not as a player anymore.

The team is already working on him being given a coaching role with the team, who is still missing the services of their prized big man Jusuf Nurkic. At the same time, it is also a way for him to contribute to the team while continuing the rehab of his injured foot.

“I have the same excitement and passion for the game of basketball that I had when I first started playing, and I will work as hard as I can on my recovery with a clear goal in mind, the two-time NBA champion said, referring to him recovering from the injury and go back on the court to play. His release will also help the team in terms of flexibility in order to sign more players to help Portland recover from a bad start this season.

His fans are in full support of his recovery while some have some other plans in mind.

The NBA Rookie of the Year in 2002 last played for the Milwaukee Bucks last season but was saddled with injuries. Due to his foot injury, he wasn’t able to play against his brother – which would have been the first time ever in the NBA where a pair of brothers will be facing each other from both conference finals series. Pau’s Milwaukee faced Marc’s Toronto Raptors in the east while Golden State’s Steph Curry played against his brother Seth, who was with Portland in the west.

He only played a total of 30 games last season with averages of 3.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists with both San Antonio Spurs and the Bucks. He has won back-to-back championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010 with Kobe Bryant.

Pau Gasol
Pau Gasol #16 of the San Antonio Spurs looks on against the Washington Wizards during the second half at Capital One Arena on March 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Getty Images/Patrick Smith
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