Free agent power forward LaMarcus Aldridge made his decision Saturday and will sign a four-year, maximum contract with the San Antonio Spurs.
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Aldridge can certainly make a case for his move – he’s going home to Texas and walking right onto a contender. Instead, Aldridge will have a meeting with the rival Miami Heat and Pat Riley over dinner later tonight, and a second meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers at some point. Aldridge also met with the Lakers, Raptors and Heat and considered returning to the Trail Blazers. He has been an National Basteball Association all-star four times in his nine years with Portland. He’s averaged more than 20 points per game each of the past five seasons, finishing with a career-high 23.4 this past season with 10.2 rebounds per game in 71 appearances (all starts).
San Antonio assistant coach Becky Hammon has known for some time that she was going to coach the Spurs’ entry in the National Basteball Association Summer League at Las Vegas.
Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the deal, while Aldridge took to Twitter and confirmed the deal himself shortly thereafter.
“The way it was described to me was, it wasn’t really a presentation, which made it among the best presentations they’d ever seen, it was just the Spurs being the Spurs“.
Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Leonard, Aldridge and Duncan will be a tough challenge for any team. He spent two and a half seasons in Toronto and another season and a half in Memphis before signing a two-year deal with the Lakers last summer that allowed him to opt out after his first year. Jackson wanted Aldridge to play center for New York.
The Spurs could not comment because of the leagues offseason moratorium. “We’ll win a couple championships with you”.
The person says the deal for Harris – a restricted free agent – is for four years and $64 million.
Aldridge reportedly told Trail Blazers General Manager Neil Olshey “It’s not true”, according to a tweet from the Blazers’ account.
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Aldridge was accused of checking out on the Blazers during their most recent playoff run this postseason, but even if that’s true this letter shows that Aldridge has all the respect in the world for Blazers fans. Durant, who will be a free agent in 2016, said that focusing on yourself is the key to making a career decision, Royce Young of ESPN reported.
