The New York Knicks have officially acquired Austin Rivers from the Houston Rockets via sign-and-trade.
As part of the deal, the Knicks will also receive draft rights to guard Sergio Llull and forwards Tadija Dragicevic and Axel Hervelle. The Knicks will send the draft rights to Issuf Sanon over to Houston.
Acquiring the draft rights to Sergio Llull might be the most interesting part of this trade. The 6-foot-3, 33-year-old point guard is a Spanish professional basketball player for Real Madrid in the EuroLeague. He’s a two-time EuroLeague champion and was the 2016-17 league MVP. Apparently, the Rockets have been trying to pry Llull away from Real Madrid for years.
‘I want to stay here and keep winning’
Unfortunately, it looks like we may never see Llull in the NBA. He’s on record saying he wants to retire with Real Madrid. “Would I like to retire with Real Madrid? Of course, I would like that,” he said in an interview with Radio Marca in 2018.
“Of course it’s hard to say no because the NBA is very tempting on all levels. But I’ve explained many times that I’m happy here with Real Madrid. I want to stay here and keep winning,” Llull added. “It’s home, I came here when I was 19 years old. I was a kid. I grew up here as a player and person. I’m really happy to be here, and this is the place I want to be.”
You can’t get much clearer than that. Perhaps Leon Rose knows something we don’t about Llull’s desire to join the NBA, but from the looks of it, he doesn’t appear anxious to pack his bags for the Big Apple any time soon. Check out some of Sergio Llull’s highlights for Real Madrid below.
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