SETTING the record straight, new NorthPort recruit Greg Slaughter insisted there was no offer from Barangay Ginebra when he went on a sabbatical last year and said he was assured that no trade was on the table upon his return last year.
The 6-foot-11 center took to Twitter to clear the air on the circumstances that led to his sabbatical and eventual return, insisting that there was no offer on the table before he went on a self-imposed break after Ginebra's 2019 Governors' Cup triumph.
"For the record and to be perfectly clear: last February 2020 I did not have an offer or an existing contract when I decided to train in the States. I also had no knowledge about a trade, I just came off a championship and gold medal in the SEA Games after all," he wrote.
Slaughter announced his hiatus in February last year as talks of his possible trade to NorthPort for Christian Standhardinger started to spread.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone denied the trade rumors and team governor Alfrancis Chua said that there was a contract waiting for the former Rookie of the Year to sign a week after the Ginebra-Meralco finals.
In the US, Slaughter continued to train and was even rumored to be looking to play in the NBA G League. The former Ateneo standout returned to the country in October and married his longtime girlfriend Schinina Juban in December.
He has since apologized to Ginebra officials before he signed a new contract with Ginebra.
The Cebuano giant said he once again inquired about the trade rumors upon his return, which he claimed Ginebra officials said weren't true.
"When I returned to the Philippines at the end of 2020, I asked if the trade rumors were true and was told they were not," he wrote.
Weeks after signing a new contract and just days after he was spotted in Ginebra's first practice of the year at Upper Deck, Slaughter was traded to NorthPort in a one-on-one trade for Standhardinger.
Slaughter said his statement was meant to debunk the narrative that he took a sabbatical because of rumors about the trade.
"Stop with this narrative!" he wrote.
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