The NBA market is more paralyzed than usual, largely due to what Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets may be cooking and the reserves of the other teams waiting for a chance to get hold of the star of the New York franchise. This is affecting a possible incorporation of Real Madrid, the expected return of a player who already knows what it means to succeed with the white team. Facundo Campazzo ended his two-year contract with the Denver Nuggets in July and is currently without a team. In interviews with the Argentine media La Nación and Información Periodística, during his concentration with the national team, the point guard reflected on his future and left almost everything up in the air.
"My attention and my energy are focused on the NBA. My first option is that. I feel like an NBA player and I want to stay at that level. I think I showed that I can compete when I'm well. In fact, in the playoffs of the first year I was starter in all the games except the last one. But be careful, I'm not saying no to Real Madrid", explained the former UCAM Murcia player in La Nación. He recognizes the importance of the white team in its jump to the biggest league in the world, but at 31 years old he considers that he is still capable of being part of the competition: "Real Madrid is the biggest showcase in Europe and thanks to him I'm in the NBA. But the reality is that I want to focus on staying in the United States."
The group led by Chus Mateo has the base position, a priori, well covered. So much so that they recently let out the greatest pearl of their quarry, the young Juan Núñez, due to the foreseeable lack of opportunities. For that position, Pablo Laso's successor has Nigel Williams-Goss, Carlos Alocén, Sergio 'Chacho' Rodríguez and Sergio Llull. In any case, Real Madrid wants the captain of the Argentine national team back. He knows it, and he doesn't want to close the doors to the white team due to the uncertainty of his future.
The wait for an NBA free agent is long. "I have my moments of anxiety, in which it is difficult for me to sleep, but in general I try to be calm. They are things that I cannot control. to think about the situation", confesses the point guard. Being able to be concentrated with Argentina is, at the moment, fortunate. "The commitments with the national team mean that the wait is not so tedious. It helps me and it amuses me a bit to plan the training sessions, how to rest, how to practice", recognizes 'Facu', who has his mind set on leading the team after the Golden Generation of Luis Scola, Manu Ginóbili, Carlos Delfino and company to the World Cup in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines and to the title in the AmeriCup.
His time at Real Madrid is divided into two stages, one before the transfer to UCAM Murcia and another after. In his first year he won the Euroleague, the ACB, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, but without being a great protagonist. He left on loan in 2015 and returned in 2017 to, this time, become the team's starting point guard. MVP of the ACB final in 2019, of the Spanish Super Cup in 2020 and of the Copa del Rey the same year, Campazzo's talent caught the attention of the NBA.
His career in the North American league went from more to less. He started being important due to Jamal Murray's injury, playing almost 22 minutes per game in a total of 65 games, 19 of them as a starter. In addition, he was part of the starting lineup in nine of the ten games the Nuggets played between the first and second rounds of the playoffs. In the 2021-22 season, competition from Monte Morris and Austin Rivers grew stronger and his presence dwindled. He participated in the same games, but played four minutes less on average and only started four of them. In these two years in the NBA he averaged 5.6 points, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals.
