Deceased - Died 26th January 2020
- Birthdate: 08/23/1978
- Drafted (NBA): 13th pick, 1996
- Pre-draft team: Lower Merion HS
- Country: USA/Italy
- Hand: Right
- Agent: -
| Date | League | Transaction |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 NBA Draft | NBA | Drafted 13th overall by Charlotte. |
| 11th July, 1996 | NBA | Draft rights traded by Charlotte to L.A. Lakers in exchange for Vlade Divac. |
| 25th August, 1996 | NBA | Signed three year, $3,501,600 rookie scale contract with L.A. Lakers. |
| 29th January, 1999 | NBA | Signed a six year maximum value contract extension ($70,875,000) with L.A. Lakers. Included early termination option after 2003/04 season. |
| 18th June, 2004 | NBA | Exercised early termination option. |
| 15th July, 2004 | NBA | Re-signed by L.A. Lakers to a seven year maximum value ($136,434,375) contract. Included early termination option after 2008/09 season and a player option for 2009/10. |
| 30th June, 2009 | NBA | Declined to exercise early termination option. |
| 2nd April, 2010 | NBA | Signed a three year, $83,547,447 extension with L.A. Lakers. |
| 25th November, 2013 | NBA | Signed a two year, $48.5 million extension with L.A. Lakers. |
| July 1996 - June 2016 | L.A. Lakers (NBA) |
January 5, 2014
The idea of a one-club man is a romanticised ideal in sports, yet one increasingly impossible to achieve in this heightened free agency era. Even Paul Pierce eventually got traded. However, it does occasionally happen, and Luol Deng is one of the few true veterans in this league to have spent his whole career with one team. Indeed, the only players to have been with their current teams longer than Deng has been with Chicago are Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Nick Collison, the Miami duo of Udonis Haslem and Dwyane Wade, and the Spurs trio of Parker, Ginobili and Duncan, while Jameer Nelson and Anderson Varejao are the only other 2004 draftees to have never left the team that first signed them. This kind of longevity, then, is rare - usually, one party is sufficiently disgruntled with the other by now to have moved on.
August 12, 2010
In re-signing for four years and $80 million with the Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki was able to secure himself only the second no-trade clause in the league. The other one belongs to Kobe Bryant. Not many players are eligible for no-trade clauses; to be eligible, a player has to have 8 years of NBA experience, at least four years of which have to have been with the team he's signing with (albeit not necessarily consecutive years). Other eligible players such as Paul Pierce and Tim Duncan could have had them worked into their most recent contracts, but didn't; then again, they didn't really need to. They're not being traded. Not now, not ever.
June 18, 2010
Congratulations to the 2009/10 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers. Both teams played hard, the ball didn't lie, other clichés happened, and the better team just about won. Game 7 was a marvellous exercise in magnetically terrible basketball - the standard was low, but only because the pressure was high, and the effort redoubtable. It wasn't pretty, but it was sure as hell tense.
Congratulations in particular go to Ron Artest, who was the best player in the game. Kobe Bryant may have won the Finals MVP award - which was more than a little awkward in light of his game 7 performance - and Pau Gasol's second half may have turned the game around, but Artest carried more of the team. He kept them in it in the first half, and helped them seal it in the second. And his dagger three pointer, which would have been an absolutely awful shot had it missed, did not miss. Crazy Pills did almost everything right.
June 14, 2010
(The Cliff Notes version of my alternative non-Jamesy plan - sign Dirk Nowitzki for a hell of a lot of money; trade Kirk Hinrich to Orlando for Marcin Gortat and a signed-and-traded Anthony Johnson; sign Roger Mason, Marcus E. Williams, Brian Skinner and Eddie House; draft Xavier Henry, and buy a mid-second rounder and use it on Trevor Booker. But I'm fully expecting Dirk to re-sign with Dallas, as should you. There is barely such a thing as a lifer in today's NBA, but Dirk, Paul Pierce, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant should be four examples of such. In fact, if they're not, something's gone gravely wrong and people must be held accountable.)