Tuesday report
Congratulations to the Jazz's A-list guard Deron Williams, who scored an invitation to the Tony Parker and Eva Longoria wedding Saturday in France. Williams already is in France, so we weren't able to track him down to talk about Derek Fisher's announcement.
I had a couple of reader questions about the specifics of what happens with Fisher's contract. There was no buyout, first of all. Fisher "walked away from the contract," as it was explained to me. I guess it's like an annulled marriage.
The Jazz no longer owe Fisher the $21 million on his contract. That's what made everything so remarkable. The Jazz released Fisher from his commitment to play for them and Fisher released the Jazz from their commitment to pay him. Totally unprecedented.
Since all contracts are guaranteed, Fisher would have been owed all $21 million had he been released. You saw this happen with Chris Webber, except the Sixers agreed to a buyout for slightly less, with both sides acknowledging Webber would sign elsewhere.
If Fisher hadn't shown up for training camp, the Jazz could have fined him and withheld his salary. That's why Fisher said as soon as you sign a contract as an NBA player you have to fulfill it. There's no walking away. In the end, it was the best decision for the Jazz and him.
It also took some wrangling between the Jazz and the NBA office just to have Monday's news conference. Teams are forbidden from amending a player's contract during the early July moratorium period. They're hardly allowed to comment about anything.
The league granted the team a dispensation to hold the news conference because the situation involving Fisher's daughter had been so well publicized.
No one with the Jazz will admit it, but they did Fisher a favor by releasing him when they did. Fisher was able to hit the free-agent market early in the negotiating period while teams still had money to spend. Two weeks from now, that probably won't be the case.
It made no difference to the Jazz, financially at least. They went into free agency with the same salary cap exceptions that they have even with Fisher leaving. The only thing different is they can promise more minutes to a free agent now.
The Fourth of July holiday made it difficult to get a ton of reaction Tuesday. I wanted to talk to Fisher's doctor in New York about why the quality of care in Salt Lake wasn't good enough. Same thing with the folks at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Everyone's taking vacation this week, I guess, including Williams. I hope everyone has a good Fourth whatever they're doing. Three names in the paper tomorrow: Morris Peterson, Jannero Pargo, Eddie House.
--Ross Siler
I had a couple of reader questions about the specifics of what happens with Fisher's contract. There was no buyout, first of all. Fisher "walked away from the contract," as it was explained to me. I guess it's like an annulled marriage.
The Jazz no longer owe Fisher the $21 million on his contract. That's what made everything so remarkable. The Jazz released Fisher from his commitment to play for them and Fisher released the Jazz from their commitment to pay him. Totally unprecedented.
Since all contracts are guaranteed, Fisher would have been owed all $21 million had he been released. You saw this happen with Chris Webber, except the Sixers agreed to a buyout for slightly less, with both sides acknowledging Webber would sign elsewhere.
If Fisher hadn't shown up for training camp, the Jazz could have fined him and withheld his salary. That's why Fisher said as soon as you sign a contract as an NBA player you have to fulfill it. There's no walking away. In the end, it was the best decision for the Jazz and him.
It also took some wrangling between the Jazz and the NBA office just to have Monday's news conference. Teams are forbidden from amending a player's contract during the early July moratorium period. They're hardly allowed to comment about anything.
The league granted the team a dispensation to hold the news conference because the situation involving Fisher's daughter had been so well publicized.
No one with the Jazz will admit it, but they did Fisher a favor by releasing him when they did. Fisher was able to hit the free-agent market early in the negotiating period while teams still had money to spend. Two weeks from now, that probably won't be the case.
It made no difference to the Jazz, financially at least. They went into free agency with the same salary cap exceptions that they have even with Fisher leaving. The only thing different is they can promise more minutes to a free agent now.
The Fourth of July holiday made it difficult to get a ton of reaction Tuesday. I wanted to talk to Fisher's doctor in New York about why the quality of care in Salt Lake wasn't good enough. Same thing with the folks at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Everyone's taking vacation this week, I guess, including Williams. I hope everyone has a good Fourth whatever they're doing. Three names in the paper tomorrow: Morris Peterson, Jannero Pargo, Eddie House.
--Ross Siler
7:45 PM
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2 Comments:
Didn't Derek Fisher explain why they went to NYC for medical treatment? It's not because there's a lesser quality of care in SLC - as I recall, Tatum is having an experimental treatment for her retinoblastoma rather than the standard treatment of removing the eye entirely - and this treatment is only performed at a limited number of medical centers. The decision to seek this particular treatment is what sent them to NYC.
What about Brevin Knight as a possible PG backup? Also, do you know if the Jazz explored any trade possibilities before they let Fisher walk away?
My impression is that they didn't look at trades -- Mitch Kupchak seemed to be surprised by the announcement, and LA would be a possible place for Fisher to play. Of course, LA doesn't probably have anyone that the Jazz would want anyway.
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