This summer has been a circus of sorts in the NBA with free agency still very much in full swing. Many players opted out of their contracts to get more money or possibly a change in scenery, while some players received absurdly ridiculous contracts to stay with their current team. A player even went back on a verbal agreement with a team. Free agency has been a zoo and below are a few of the more interesting stories.
It all began with Anthony Davis. With his newest contract, Davis’s unibrow is now worth about $145 million, the richest contract in the history of the NBA. Things only got wilder from there.
The Cavaliers, of course, made sure that Lebron James stayed in Cleveland. No surprise there as he is currently the best player in the world. Despite losing the finals to the Golden State Warriors and their golden boy Steph Curry, Lebron still managed to receive a $46 million dollar deal with the Cavs over 2 seasons. While Lebron is kept happy, the Cavs have one player who has yet to get his contract negotiated: Tristan Thompson. Thompson stepped up in the Finals with an average of 9.6 points a game and a ridiculous 10.8 offensive rebounds, more than center Timofey Mozgov. While negotiations are still happening, hopefully Thompson receives a handsome extension deal because his numbers prove that it is definitely well earned.
After two meetings with the Lakers and a dinner with Miami Heat GM Pat Riley, LaMarcus Aldrige chose to go with Greg Popovich and the San Antonion Spurs. While there was a large buzz about the possibility of seeing Aldrige in gold and yellow and alongside Kobe Bryant, rumors spread that Aldrige was not “made welcome” around the Black Mamba. Kobe had this to say:
The Spurs, on the other hand, did everything to accommodate Aldrige: not only did he receive $80 million over the next four years thanks to Tim Duncan taking a pay cut, but also former Spurs player Bruce Bowen unretired his jersey so that Aldrige could wear the number 12. How’s that for accommodating?
Although a verbal agreement had been made to sign with Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks, center DeAndre Jordan had a sudden change of heart and decided to stay with the Los Angeles Clippers.
DeAndre is a prime example of why it is not wise to make verbal agreements. He made it known that Chris Paul was a reason that he had wanted to make his exit from Los Angeles, however until you sign that contract, don’t ever make it known that you are leaving a current team. While Jordan apologized via Twitter, this could have all been avoided if he would have kept quiet and taken all the time to really evaluate his decision. The actions of Jordan are those of a college prospect, not a professional athlete with the amount of time he has been in the league. This also left Mark Cuban in a bad spot because the Maverick’s recently let go of center Tyson Chandler and instead had to sign ZaZa Pachulia who, over 12 seasons in the league, only averaged 7.0 points a game and 5.6 rebounds standing at 6”11, nowhere near Jordan’s numbers.
