Saying goodbye to Hollywood
The Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers were all in the DeAndre Jordan free agency sweepstakes but it was the Dallas Mavericks who came up victorious when it was all said and done. The center agreed to a max contract north of $80 million over four years, with a player option after the third season.
Jordan is leaving Los Angeles and returning home to Texas, where he played basketball at the university of Texas A&M, and won’t play third wheel to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin any longer. The Mavericks are looking to feature him as one of the main pieces of the franchise for the future, with Dirk Nowitzki on his way out to retirement.
That’s not all, Dallas has also reached an agreement with Wesley Matthews, on a four-year, $13 million deal, plugging holes they had in the offseason heading into next year.
The Mavs went all in to recruit Jordan, showing him messages from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and wide receiver Dez Bryant, plus had the likes of Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons, owner Mark Cuban, and coach Rick Carlisle travel to Los Angeles to pitch him the greener pasture.
Looks like that Hack-A-Jordan strategy is about to crash land in Dallas for years to come.
ESPN sources say DeAndre Jordan is on verge of accepting Mavs' four-year, $80M+ max offer. Dallas firmly in lead and decision likely today
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 3, 2015
So Chandler Parsons got Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan to leave max contracts in L.A. to come to Texas.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) July 3, 2015
Seriously, @ChandlerParsons needs his own series of Mission Impossible movies where he just pulls off greater & greater feats of recruiting
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) July 3, 2015