Retired - Retired after 2012 season
- Birthdate: 09/28/1976
- Drafted (NBA): 11th pick, 1998
- Pre-draft team: Ball State
- Country: USA
- Hand: Right
- Agent: -
| Date | League | Transaction |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 NBA Draft | NBA | Drafted 11th overall by Detroit. |
| 21st January, 1999 | NBA | Draft rights traded by Detroit to Portland in exchange for a protected 1999 first round pick (#27, Jumaine Jones) and a 2000 second round pick (#57, Scoonie Penn). |
| 25th January, 1999 | NBA | Signed four year, $6,314,400 rookie scale contract with Portland. Included team option for 2001/02. |
| 30th October, 2000 | NBA | Portland exercised 2001/02 team option. |
| 30th September, 2002 | NBA | Re-signed by Portland to a four year, $29 million contract. Included team option for 2005/06. |
| 3rd December, 2003 | NBA | Traded by Portland to Memphis in exchange for Wesley Person, a 2004 first round pick (#23, Sergei Monia) and cash. |
| 30th June, 2005 | NBA | Memphis exercised 2005/06 team option. |
| 2nd August, 2005 | NBA | Traded by Memphis to Sacramento in exchange for Bobby Jackson and Greg Ostertag. |
| 27th September, 2006 | NBA | Signed a two year, $4,399,200 contract with Houston. Included player option for 2007/08. |
| 24th June, 2007 | NBA | Exercised 2007/08 player option. |
| 21st February, 2008 | NBA | As a part of a three team deal, traded by Houston to New Orleans, along with Mike James, and along with the draft rights to Malick Badiane (#44, 2003) and cash to Memphis, in exchange for Bobby Jackson, Adam Haluska and a 2008 second round pick (#54, Maarty Leunen) from New Orleans, and the rights to Sergei Lishouk (#49, 2004) from Memphis. |
| 13th December, 2008 | China | Signed for the remainder of the season with Shanxi. |
| 31st January, 2009 | China | Released by Shanxi. |
| 24th November, 2009 | Puerto Rico | Signed for the duration of the Liga Americas with Captaines de Arecibo. |
| 13th December, 2011 | NBA | Signed an unguaranteed one year minimum salary contract with Minnesota. |
| 23rd December, 2011 | NBA | Waived by Minnesota. |
| 1994 - 1998 | Ball State (NCAA) |
| January 1999 - December 2003 | Portland Trail Blazers (NBA) |
| December 2003 - August 2005 | Memphis Grizzlies (NBA) |
| August 2005 - June 2006 | Sacramento Kings (NBA) |
| October 2006 - February 2008 | Houston Rockets (NBA) |
| February 2008 - June 2008 | New Orleans Hornets (NBA) |
| December 2008 - February 2009 | Shanxi (China) |
| November 2009 - December 2009 | Arecibo (Puerto Rico) |
| December 2011 | Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA) |
March 19, 2013
Bonzi Wells - Still plays in exhibitions, but that doesn't really count.
April 19, 2011
Fabricio Oberto - Fabricio Oberto retired at the very start of this season due to a heart defect. In February, it was announced that he may sign with Argentian team Atenas, with whom he had began his career; however, in March, Oberto declined the move in favour of "travelling to Europe." He is now back in Argentina, staging basketball clinics as a part of a wider social development project, and may yet play for the next installment of the Argentine national team.
April 19, 2011
Bonzi Wells - In his own words, Bonzi Wells is "chillin".
Bonzi Wells's famously poor financial decision actually cost him more money than Latrell Sprewell's comparable one cost him. But because Bonzi didn't get any funny quotables about it, it is far less remembered. The lesson, as always - shut up.
June 7, 2010
Bonzi Wells - 3 games, 30.0 mpg, 19.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.3 apg, 3.0 fpg, 2.0 spg, 0.3 bpg
Bonzi Wells is currently using Twitter to claim that he's "damn near retired". I guess he didn't enjoy his time with the Captains.
May 30, 2010
- Bonzi Wells
If things were different, Bonzi Wells would be under contract in the NBA for about $8 million right now. As it is, he's out of basketball.
Wells last played in the NBA in the 2007-08 season. He started the year with the Rockets in the second season of the 2 year, $5 million deal he signed with the team in summer 2006, the best offer he could get after declining a five year, $38.5 million extension from the Kings a few weeks earlier. (Whoops.) He was traded to the Hornets at the 2008 deadline, in a move that had far greater ramifications for the Hornets than is perhaps realised. For a two month rental of Wells, New Orleans traded Adam Haluska, Marcus Vinicius, a 2008 second round draft pick and Bobby Jackson, receiving Bonzi and Mike James in return. Haluska, Vinicius and the pick (later used on Maarty Leunen) were irrelevant, but the inclusions of Jackson and James were very significant. Put simply, Jackson was expiring in 2009 and James wasn't.
The addition of James's contract to Nawlins's already hefty salary bill was the precursor to the Hornets' recent series of salary-cutting move. Whereas Jackson's expiring contract would have put them under the tax, James's non-expiring put them back into it. Over the course of the last 12 months, the Hornets have had to make a series of moves to gift away players, just to stay under the tax. The Hornets have had to give away Rasual Butler, Hilton Armstrong, Bobby Brown and Devin Brown to save money; none of those players are very good, and are not rotation calibre (Butler excepted), yet it is representative of a problem; the Hornets can't afford to improve, and as such, they've gotten worse. (Even their big moves, such as Tyson Chandler for Emeka Okafor, saved short term money. This was not a coincidence.)
The Hornets already had a fragile salary structure after their novelty oversized contracts to Peja Stojakovic, James Posey and Morris Peterson. They knew they didn't have much to spend, yet they took on Mike James's contract knowing that it would inhibit their ability to spend any more. James himself was turned into Antonio Daniels, which didn't really change anything as his salary was almost identical; however, Daniels too had to be traded to save money, and was dealt in the offseason for Darius Songaila and Bobby Brown. That trade saved New Orleans about $1.2 million this season and provided another valuable step to avoiding the luxury tax, which they eventually did - however, Songaila's contract was a year longer than Daniels's. This means that two years have now been added to Bobby Jackson's initial contract. This will mean a third straight season of frenetic luxury tax dodging, thrifty spending, Sean Marks and minimal depth. They'll be bailed out soon when Peja expires, but until that time, it'll be more of the same.
And they got themselves into this hole purely for Bonzi Wells, who played 34 games for them.
Anyway. Moving on.
Since falling out of the NBA in the 2008 offseason, Wells has played in China and Puerto Rico only. He averaged a whopping 34.3ppg, 8.9rpg, 4.1apg and 3.8spg in 14 Chinese league games before a premature release (giggidy), and playing in only three games for Capitanes de Arecibo in the Liga Americas tournament, averaging 19.7 ppg. He is now claiming to be, in his own words, "damn near retired." The lesson, as always; negotiate hard, but don't lose perspective on what your true market value is. Doing so has cost Bonzi over $30 million.