Rookie Carlos Delfino has told reporters in his native Argentina that he is done with Larry Brown and done with the Pistons.
Delfino's comments in the Clarin and La Nacion Line newspapers were published Friday, a day after Delfino found out he had been left off the playoff roster. Delfino took the news that he won't be playing any more this season very badly.
"They used me, they treated me like trash," Delfino said in an English translation of the stories posted on FIBA.com. "They should transfer me or cut me. From this place, I have the worst memories of my career, and I want to go back home.
"For this guy (Brown), I will not play anymore. And I don't want to stay here."
Delfino practiced Friday but did not make himself available to reporters.
Brown said he doesn't see the outburst as anything to worry about.
"I wouldn't want him to handle it well," Brown said.
A few weeks ago, Delfino clashed with Brown after Brown pulled him shortly after inserting him in the fourth quarter of the April 3 game at Toronto. Delfino later admitted he swore in his native Spanish at Brown and revealed that he did not have a good relationship with his coach.
Brown said Friday that "I read what he said after that little thing in Toronto. I'm not worried about that."
Brown also explained why the team decided to leave Delfino off the playoff roster, saying it had everything to do with Delfino not being 100 percent recovered from undergoing two surgeries on his right knee.
"If he was healthy I'm sure he'd be playing," Brown said. "But four months" -- actually three -- "he didn't play. So you do what you have to do and you move on."
Team president Joe Dumars declined to address Delfino's comments, saying, "We're focused on winning Game 1 of the NBA playoffs."
Had Delfino not been injured and instead been able to develop as the season went along, he would have been a lock to be among the active. He's a fearless player, a terrific ball-handler and a natural scorer. His defense is suspect, but so is the defense of half the players in the NBA.
On top of everything else, Delfino is angry because he said he didn't find out about the decision until Thursday, right before the announcement was made formal.
"The (practice) finished, and nobody told me a thing," he said. "I wasn't expecting anything from Brown because he doesn't even say 'Hi' to me, but I did expect something different from Joe Dumars."
As angry as he might be at the moment, Delfino really has no leverage. And while this season has, for both parties, been a disappointment, the Pistons think Delfino has the potential to be a good player and would love to see what he can do with a full season. In other words, they may not be done with him.
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