Image via Complex Original
10.
Believe it or not, NBA free agency didn’t always exist. Up until the late 1980’s, the only way a player could change uniforms was via trade, compensatory signing (basically a mini trade), or taking a year off from the game after his contract was up. Team owners had all the power when it came to contracts, prompting an antitrust lawsuit against the NBA to be filed in 1970 by the legend, and then-president of the players’ union, Oscar Robertson.
The result was an elimination of what was known as the “reserve clause,” thus allowing no longer contracted players to sign elsewhere should they so desire. That being said, teams still retained the “right of first refusal," meaning that if you were a top talent in the league, you were likely stuck playing for the organization that drafted you until they decided otherwise.
It took many years for NBA players to obtain the level of “free agency” they have today. In 1982, Kevin Durant absolutely re-signs with the Thunder. He wouldn’t have a choice. Now, it's owners, coaches, general managers, and players lining up at KD’s door, vying for the opportunity to sell him on their organization. In 2016, Durant signs with the Golden State Warriors.
To celebrate the development, unpredictability, and excitement of modern day free agency, here are the most impactful decisions in NBA history, ranked. Note: It’s not just the on-court impacts we’re looking at here, but how particular signings altered the complexion of the Association forever.
Honorable Mentions:
Dwyane Wade (to the Chicago Bulls)
Cue the Diddy-Dirty Money music: Dwyane Wade is coming home. Well, sort of. The artist formerly known as Flash hails from Chicago, but he’s been the sheriff of Wade County in South Beach ever since getting drafted by the Heat back in 2003. He delivered the organization its first championship and helped propel the Big 3 Heatles to back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
All signs pointed towards Wade being a lifer in Miami, but uncertainty in the chaotic 2016 free agency world changed his narrative real quick. Whether Pat Riley is to blame for his departure (due to Riley not properly compensating Wade for taking less money during several prior contract years so the team could acquire more assets) or it’s simply a case of a man jumping at the opportunity to play professional basketball in the city that raised him, Wade is starting the final chapter of his career. One alongside Jimmy Butler and Rajon Rondo—a deliciously bizarre trio.
Wade won’t bring the city championships, but his decision is perhaps a symptom of his best friend LeBron scooting back home two off-seasons prior.
Gilbert Arenas (to the Washington Wizards)
Before he was toting guns and taking names, Agent Zero was a standout second round draft pick for the Golden State Warriors who averaged 18 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds in just his second season. A restricted free agent in 2003, the Wizards offered Gilly a 6-year $60 million contract, which the Warriors were unable to match since Bird Exceptions (more on this later) didn’t apply to second round draft picks. To ensure that teams were able to match the offers made by other teams in these types of situations, the NBA instituted the Gilbert Arenas Rule in the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Among other effects, the Arenas Rule has led to the poison pill loophole which allowed the Houston Rockets to offer Jeremy Lin a back-loaded contract that would have forced the Knicks to cough up millions of dollars in luxury tax money.
DeAndre Jordan (to the Los Angeles Clippers)
✈️ 🚙 🚁 🚀 🍌 🚣. #NeverForget
Chris Bosh (to the Miami Heat)
LeBron James wasn’t the only player who took his talents to South Beach in 2010. Bosh joined the King and D-Wade in Miami and helped lead the super team to four straight NBA Finals appearances and two championships.
LaMarcus Aldridge (to the San Antonio Spurs)
The San Antonio Spurs typically send ripples through the pond that is free agency—preferring to sign low cost, high reward free agents—but in the summer of 2015, they made a huge splash. To prepare for the imminent breakup of their aging Big 3, the Spurs signed all-star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge.
Although his tenure with the Spurs got off to a rocky start, Aldridge reminded us why he was considered a top five player with the Blazers down the stretch and in the postseason. Against OKC, he dropped 38 and 41 in Games 1 and 2 respectively and finished the series averaging 27 points per game. Along with Kawhi Leonard, Aldridge is the future of the San Antonio Spurs organization and he’s an example of the modern day free agent superstar changing uniforms for a better chance of winning.
9.LeBron James (to the Cleveland Cavaliers)
It’s not every day a guy gets to make two Decisions in his life, but LeBron James is not your typical guy. We all remember that fateful night in 2010 when James announced he’d be taking his talents to South Beach, solidifying him as the most hated villain in the league and depriving Cleveland of its hopes and dreams.
He wronged a lot of rights in that Decision, but then made it all better in one fell swoop when he re-joined the team in the summer of 2014 after “graduating” from South Beach University (Read: four years with the Miami Heat). His story was officially set up for the fairy-tale ending everyone hoped it would be when he entered the league.
Where LeBron goes an NBA Finals appearance goes, and in 2016, LeBron finally made good on his promise to bring a chip back to the Land when he led the Cavs to a historic finals victory over the 73-win Golden State Warriors. It is the first professional championship Cleveland has won in over 50 years, and for that reason alone, deserves recognition.
8.Julius Erving (to the Philadelphia 76ers)
Julius Erving is a basketball legend. He rose to local fame at New York’s hallowed Rucker Park, averaged 26 points and 20 rebounds in college, and served as the face of the American Basketball Association (aka the ABA) where he won two championships and three MVP awards.
While the Knicks had a golden opportunity to sign Erving—the ABA’s New York Nets were willing to sell him to the Knicks for $4.8 million, and the Knicks pulled a “Knicks” by turning down the offer—it was the Sixers who landed the Doctor in 1976 after the ABA-NBA merger. For Philly, he won the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 1981, and then led the team, along with Hall of Fame center Moses Malone, to an NBA championship in 1983.
But Dr. J is one of those unique players whose impact on the game goes way beyond his accomplishments and numbers. He astounded fans with his graceful, above the rim style of play, and can be considered the evolutionary ancestor of modern era, high-flying superstars like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook.
7.Larry Bird (to the Boston Celtics)
Unlike the other players on this list, Larry Bird’s decision was to stay put rather than hit the road. Prior to the 1983-84 season, Legend and the Celtics agreed to a 7-year, $12.6 million contract extension, which was brilliant in more ways than one.
In 1983, the NBA announced the institution of a salary cap, which would take effect in the 1984-85 season. The cap, set at $3.6 million (more than $10 million less than Ian Mahimi will make in 2016-17) restricted teams’ annual expenditures. But the CBA also called for another crucial stipulation: To make re-signing players easier, clubs were allowed to exceed the $3.6 million soft cap and match any contracts offered by other teams.
Red Auerbach, the always savvy businessman and legendary Celtics coach, elected to re-up Bird and power forward Kevin McHale before salary cap restrictions came into play. This meant not only that the Celtics were able to retain their championship core, but that the organization did not, in fact, use the later termed “Bird Exception” on Larry Bird. Oddly enough, they first employed it the following off-season to retain Cedric Maxwell.
The Bird Exception still exists today, albeit with a few changes, and remains a critical tool in free agency. The 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers were able to keep their roster in place because they exercised the Bird Exception. They exceeded the league’s annual salary cap number ($70 million) in order to retain Tristan Thompson, Matthew Dellavedova, and by extension, LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Iman Shumpert.
So yes, the Larry Bird Exception—which probably shouldn’t be called the Larry Bird Exception—allowed the Cavs to win a title. Not bad for an improperly named rule.
6.Steve Nash (to the Phoenix Suns)
In 2004, Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks faced a tough decision: Re-sign restricted free agent point guard Steve Nash or let him walk in favor of securing a solid center, which the team desperately needed. They went with the latter, inking Erick Dampier to a 7-year, $73 million contract.
Wrong choice.
Cuban didn’t want to pay Nash, nervous that extending the 30-year-old point guard could backfire, so the Phoenix Suns jumped on Canada’s greatest export, signing him to a 6-year, $63 million contract.
Nash immediately changed the Suns’ fortunes, leading them to a 62-20 record (best in franchise history) and a trip to the Western Conference Finals. He won back-to-back MVPs in 2005 and 2006, and was robbed of an NBA Finals appearance thanks to Robert Horry body checking him in Game 4 of the 2006 Western Conference Finals against the Spurs, resulting in Boris Diaw and Amar’e Stoudemire getting suspended for leaving the “vicinity” of the Suns bench.
Although Nash never won a title with Phoenix, he changed the game of basketball. Nash, along with coach Mike D’Antoni, introduced and executed to perfection the 7 seconds or less style of play that championed transition buckets, 3-point shooting, and churning out as many offensive possessions as possible. Many of the lineups the Suns fielded saw Stoudemire at the 5, Shawn Marion at the 4, Nash at the 1, and shooters all around. They were the innovators of small-ball, precursors to teams like the Golden State Warriors.
Basically, Nash’s free agent decision helped usher in modern day small-ball. Not to mention, it may have easily deprived the Dallas Mavericks of a few more NBA titles.
5.Spencer Haywood (to the Seattle Supersonics)
Hall of Fame forward Spencer Haywood often gets lost in the annals of NBA history, but his legacy in free agency can’t be forgotten.
After his sophomore season at the University of Detroit, Haywood signed with the ABA’s Denver Rockets where he averaged a Wilt-esque 30 points and 20 rebounds during his rookie year, securing Rookie of the Year and league MVP honors. Seattle Supersonics owner Sam Schulman saw Haywood’s incredible talents and wanted to offer him a contract, but the NBA prohibited teams from signing players that weren’t four years removed from graduating from high school.
Schulman attempted to sign Haywood, the NBA blocked the deal, and Haywood filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league. The United States Supreme Court voted in favor of Haywood, meaning that he could sign and play with the Sonics starting in the second half of the 1971-1972 season.
The decision did more than just give Haywood a then-lucrative $1.5 million deal. It set a precedent for future aspiring NBA players, allowing them to be signed and/or drafted by professional teams without having to wait those four years after graduating from high school. That meant college athletes could leave school and declare for the NBA Draft after their freshman, sophomore, and junior years. So, we can thank Spencer Haywood and Sam Schulman for all the one-and-done college players we see in today’s NBA landscape.
We can also thank Haywood and Schulman for paving the way for players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and Kwame Brown (couldn’t leave him off the list) to be drafted right out of high school. Even though the league implemented a rule in 2005 requiring players to be at least one year removed from high school before entering the draft, we can see the long-term effects Spencer Haywood’s decision had on the NBA.
4.Tom Chambers (to the Phoenix Suns)
In 1988, Tom Chambers faced a dilemma. As a free agent forward, he didn’t want to re-sign with the Sonics whose frontcourt was stacked with forwards like Derrick McKey, Xavier McDaniel, Michael Cage, and later Shawn Kemp. There was little room for Chambers, an All-Star in 1987-88, and he wanted a change.
Fortunately for him, the NBA had just included a new provision in the CBA, stating that players could leave their teams after their contract was up and sign elsewhere. That made Chambers the first unrestricted agent in league history, and his deal with the Suns set the standard for how free agency today works.
NBA players looking to sign contracts were afforded mobility and power for the first time.
3.Kevin Durant (to the Golden State Warriors)
Shocked. Angry. Disappointed. Forsaken. Empty. A little hungry. That’s how I felt after hearing Kevin Durant’s unexpected decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors on the Fourth of July.
People have called the former MVP’s move weak and cowardly; a violation of the prescribed narrative of competition and overcoming obstacles in sport, but really, Durant’s decision represents the state of modern NBA free agency to a tee: A superstar leaves the team he’s played on for nearly a decade because he believes he has a better chance to win elsewhere.
More than that, the process leading up to his decision—the courting by several teams who were on his most desired destinations “list” and structuring a contract around his best interests—and his eventual decision show how the player (Durant in this case) dictates the movements and actions of the parties within the NBA.
If LeBron set the precedent for top NBA talent bolting for greener pastures, Durant applied the policy and took it a step further. LeBron went to Miami for two reasons: 1) The Cavs organization was not assembling the adequate pieces (shoutout Boobie Gibson) to form a championship-level club; and 2) Bron wanted to play with his friends.
Durant’s decision had less to do with friendships and nothing to do with OKC lacking credible pieces. By joining the Warriors, Durant is joining his adversaries, and in the process, firmly placing the black hat atop his head. He’s aligning with the best regular season team in NBA history who also happened to knock his old squad out of the playoffs.
Durantula saw not five, not six, but perhaps seven-plus more years of the high-powered Warriors standing in his path, so he acted accordingly. Now, the multiple titles may very well be in his future, seeing as a former league MVP plus a 73-win team (which has the reigning, unanimous league MVP and two other All-Stars) should equal a lot of championships. Durant’s decision is purely a case of if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Whether that’s right or wrong is a different question altogether.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from LeBron and now Durant, it’s that any player can end up on any team, even if that may seem like the most unlikely scenario. Nothing is off limits in NBA free agency. For the sake of our own mental and physical sanity we (as fans) would do well to remember that.
2.Shaquille O’Neal (to the Los Angeles Lakers)
You know a sports franchise has made a mistake when ESPN produces a 30 for 30 documentary about what could have been had the team in question not lost its superstar.
The team is the Orlando Magic and the player is Shaquille O’Neal. It was 1996, and the Diesel, emerging as the league’s top center, chose to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, and in the process, abandon a terrific Magic team that had a perfect mix of youth and veteran leadership. With Shaq, Penny Hardaway, Horace Grant (and his snazzy spectacles), Dennis Scott, and Nick Anderson, Orlando was primed to win now and remain Eastern Conference contenders for the next decade. But it wasn’t in the cards.
O’Neal’s departure didn’t have as much to do with basketball or winning as it did feeling undervalued. In an Orlando Sentinel poll, 82% of Magic fans said the organization shouldn’t fire head coach Brian Hill in order to retain Shaq. In another poll, 91% said he wasn’t worth $115 million, the contract Orlando offered him. Ouch.
The Magic didn’t treat him a whole lot better. The team low-balled him, and by the time they realized they needed to unload the bank for Shaq or else he’d split for a city and organization that truly appreciated him, it was too late. O’Neal became a Laker, signing for a whopping 7 years, $121 million.
What happened next? Shaq joined Kobe to form one of the greatest tandem in NBA history. He won three championships, earned an MVP, and established himself as one of the best players of all time.
Shaq has recently stated that he sometimes regrets his decision to leave Orlando, which is saying a lot given his massive success in L.A. It goes to show that ownership must properly value its employees. As Shaq proved, even superstars are neither afraid to take, nor restricted from taking their talents elsewhere.
1.LeBron James (to the Miami Heat)
Any surprise this comes in at number one on the list?
UVO, play Jukebox. Take us back to July 8, 2010 (and apparently, outdated Blake Griffin Kia ad references). LeBron James is sitting on a stool at a Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, Conn. (of all places) in front of Jim Gray, a bunch of kids, and 13 million people watching from home. He reveals to the world that he’s “taking his talents” to South Beach. Oh, and he’s wearing a ridiculous pizza parlor tablecloth button-down shirt that was almost louder than the rioting Cavs fans.
The 75-minute televised “Decision” is ingrained in any basketball fan’s memory. People called LeBron self-centered, egomaniacal, and treacherous. Cleveland fans burned his jersey and Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert wrote a scathing letter rife with racist undertones directed at the King for being a quitter by not fulfilling his promise to bring a championship back to the Land.
LeBron’s Decision was unprecedented in many ways. He wasn’t just leaving his hometown team—he told the world about it on national television. He wasn’t just a dude bolting for greener pastures; He was the best player in basketball fast-tracking his path to an elusive NBA championship. He was forming a super team with two of his friends (who happened to also be pretty darn good at basketball), Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, to establish the first free agency-bred Big 3. Because of his decision, LeBron went from the King who everyone revered to the villain.
How LeBron’s free agency went down represents a culmination of the shift of power from ownership to player. You can even argue Durant wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on signing with the Dubs if LeBron hadn’t done it first.
Half the league showed up at LeBron’s doorstep just for an opportunity to pitch him on their teams and cities. It happened for LaMarcus Aldridge last year, it’s happened for KD this year, and you can bet it’ll happen for Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul next year.
Yes, LeBron won back-to-back titles with Miami, legitimizing (for some) his status as the world’s best player. He became a winner in South Beach, even though he couldn’t bring the city five, six, or seven championships as he promised. Despite how you feel about LeBron, the impact of his decision on NBA free agency was monumental. It demonstrated that in today’s league the players, not management, wield the power.