Marcin Gortat might be the luckiest man in all of basketball right now. The Polish big man was traded by the Washington Wizards to the Los Angeles Clippers in the offseason. Since then, the Clippers look like one of the best teams in basketball while the Wizards are contemplating blowing up the entire roster.
Locker room issues have been a consistent motif in Washington in recent years. Marcin Gortat felt like he was used as a scapegoat after the trade, but the 34-year old fired back at his former team amid the recent dysfunction happening in the nation's capital.
“Listen, the way I was traded out of that team, it looked like I was the cancer of the locker room,” Gortat told Ben Standig of NBC Sports Washington. “I think that thing was verified and it was complete [expletive]. It is what it is now.”
The Wizards completed an inspiring fourth-quarter comeback to beat Gortat and the Clippers. The loss was the first thing on Gortat's mind, but he was also peeved that he didn't receive any sort of welcome in his first game back in D.C.
“Well, what do I think about that? A lot of guys around the league are getting tributes. It ’s obviously up to the organization, but I guess Austin Rivers did enough to get his tribute, but I didn’t do enough to get a tribute here,” Gortat added. “A few guys around the team understand. It was kind of weird.”
Gortat spent five solid seasons with the Wizards. He probably did deserve some sort of tribute or welcome back to D.C., but the Wizards certainly have bigger things to worry about right now.