Earlier this week, Real GM reported that the NBA's defending champions San Antonio Spurs have given Gostavu Ayon a formal offer. The Spurs were originally in pursuit of the Mexican big man and quickly gave him an official contract offer upon learning that Shandong of the Chinese Basketball Association also presented Ayon a formal offer of their own.
Neither the Spurs nor Shandong will be expecting Ayon in their roster for the coming season, however, as reports from Solobasket reveals that he has agreed to a three-year deal with Real Madrid that will pay him about €1.8 million per season.
Gustavo Ayon played for the Atlanta Hawks last season but his production in the court was limited due to injuries. He only managed to put up 4.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 26 appearances and 14 starts. He did, however, impressed the world when he played for his national team Mexico in this years FIBA World Cup, leading the team in points and rebounds with averages of 17.6 and 7.6 respectively. He also had a dominant 28 point, 8 rebound performance against team USA in the tournament.
Before the Spurs and Shandong made their formal offers, Ayon had originally agreed to a multi-year contract with Spanish ACB League team Real Madrid but the deal was never officially signed as another ACB League team, FC Barcelona, still had his rights per Air Alamo. Ayon needed a buyout of $376K but now it seems to be no longer the case.
The details of the Spurs offer have yet to be released although it could have involved part or the whole mid-level exception that was still available for the team. Whatever the offer was thoug, it surely must have been much lower than the €1.8 million or roughly $2.3 million a year offer from Real Madrid as ESPN's Marc Stein reported over the weekend that Ayon preferred to remain in the NBA but was getting richer offers from Europe.
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