The report stated that the player’s maximum contract is $87.6 million contract for four years with a player option after his third season. Jordan going back on his word was unprofessional.
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A move that the Clippers were quick to proclaim. Several of the Clippers contingent remained after the end of the meeting, staying until he was to sign the deal, which the center was first able to do at 12:01 a.m. ET Thursday when a leaguewide moratorium was lifted.
Another free-agent guard, Brooklyn’s Shane Larkin, said he wasn’t willing to talk to anyone else after committing to the Nets.
“His presence down low essentially made teams either commit to the 3-point line when Blake [Griffin] or Chris [Paul] penetrated or commit to him, and that either opened up lobs for him or 3s for guys like me and Jamal [Crawford] and Matt [Barnes]”.
Wojnarowski reported Wednesday that Ballmer, Rivers and the Clippers’ players refused to leave Jordan’s house until the signing deadline passed, lest Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and his representatives swoop in to re-negotiate with Jordan.
National Basteball Association free agents began negotiating with teams on July 1, but couldn’t actually sign contracts until today.
The Colts clearly aren’t complaining that Gore had a change of heart, and neither are the Clippers regarding Jordan.
Reminder: The deal between the Clippers and Jordan can have a huge backlash and as ESPN’s Marc Stein tweets’ the moratorium period will never be the same. My issue with everyone riding DeAndre is that he was fully within his rights to change his mind and didn’t owe Dallas anything and still doesn’t.
And this from Chris Paul, referencing his well-publicized banana boat ride with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Gabrielle Union earlier in the week. Both the Spurs and Rockets took to consistently fouling Jordan, interrupting the flow of the game but also interrupting the flow of the Clippers.
At least six quality big men agreed to deals with other teams after Jordan committed to Dallas, so it’s a safe bet there was at least some ripple effect in the market from there. Cuban arrived in Houston on Wednesday as Dallas tried to fend off the Clippers’ threat, sources said.
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In fact, Yahoo Sports reported that Wednesday’s meeting with the Clippers was a short one. After all, they only followed up after Jordan made it clear that he was having second thoughts. Jordan is a Houston native who played at Texas A&M. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon added that Jordan wouldn’t even take phone calls from Cuban or Chandler Parsons, who was heavily involved in recruiting Jordan.
