Fabricio Oberto, whose free agent rights are owned by the Washington Wizards, is still not sure if he is in the team’s plans for this season and could learn if he’s returning to Washington as soon as today.
Oberto, 35, came to Washington last year after four successful years (including one NBA title) with San Antonio, hoping to provide some much-needed depth on the front line for what was expected to be a significant postseason contender, and the Wizards signed used a bi-annual exception to sign him for $1.99 million.
Instead, once Antawn Jamison got injured in the preseason, Oberto got pressed into duty immediately and found himself starting the first seven games. And things couldn’t have looked much more promising when he used his cheeky between the legs pass to find Gilbert Arenas for a wide-open 3-pointer in the 123-104 rout of New Jersey in the home opener.
But Oberto was mostly the good soldier on a bad team from then on, starting only three more times as the season spiraled downward. Once it reached the bottom, and JaVale McGee played his way out of the starting lineup, Oberto moved back into the first five for the final ten games of the year. He finished with averages of 1.5 points and 1.8 rebounds, the lowest numbers of his five years in the NBA.
Oberto, 35, bounced back in the FIBA World Championships this summer, averaging 8.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in five games – he also missed a quartet of games with a stomach illness – for Argentina, which was beaten by Lithuania in the quarterfinals.
