It’s been a long 48 hours for Raptors fans — with the NBA trade deadline looming, most of us have been at our computers compulsively hitting F5, watching basketball Twitter with Rainman-esque obsessiveness. Turns out it wasn’t all in vain: the Raptors just obtained centre Marc Gasol from the Memphis Grizzles for Jonas Valanciunas, C.J. Miles, Delon Wright, and a future second-round draft pick, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Wawaweewa, that’s a doozy of a trade. The Raptors give up their longest-tenured Raptor since 2011 and a fan favourite. In return they get a top-10 centre who’s 34, but having a hell of a season, averaging 15.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, and a career-high 4.7 assists — that ranks him second among the league’s centres, only behind Nikola Jokic. If there were any doubts that Raptors GM Masai Ujiri was serious about going all-in for a championship this year, consider them obliterated.
Raptors fans are feeling some type of way on Twitter, crushed to see the Lithuanian funnyman go.
This was only a year ago, life comes at you fast. Gonna miss Valanciunas. #RTZ pic.twitter.com/LotQSHPOEI
— Gareth Bush (@garethbush) February 7, 2019
Valanciunas will be missed on the floor. But Gasol will fill that void. But allow me to speak of JV off the floor: you'd be hard-pressed to find a better man. He's a true gentleman to teammates, fans, media et al. He's down-to-earth, w/ a solid sense of humor. I wish him the best
— Eric Smith (@Eric__Smith) February 7, 2019
we'll miss you jonas valanciunas, thank you pic.twitter.com/VjNacsoInj
— gunned down jordans 🏴☠️ (@gunnddownjrdns) February 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/ThisManQ/status/1093596230507286528
“It’s an evil world we live in…” https://t.co/X3QrdieP63
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) February 7, 2019
On the bright side, at least the Raptors are shipping the GoDaddy curse away to Memphis. (Seriously y’all, every player that’s done one of those commercials has had a ROUGH go.) That and we just snagged a monster centre who’s an agile defender and can shoot the three.
Anyone got any ideas for a new campaign?…Asking for a friend. #CJsPJs #Memphis #NBATradeDeadline #NBATradeAlert #Raptors
— GoDaddy Canada (@GoDaddyCanada) February 7, 2019
Still, I’m gonna miss JV. Big Science. Jonas the Bonus. Veyonce. J-zilla. The Lithuanian Lightning. The pump-fake pimp. Good night, sweet prince.
(We’re sad to see you go too, C.J. and Delon.)
