Highly coveted free agent NBA center DeAndre Jordan made headlines this week, as he essentially backed out of his verbally agreed mega-contract with the Dallas Mavericks in order to re-sign with his old team in the Los Angeles Clippers at a well-publicized meeting at his home in Houston, Texas, late last night.
Of course, he’s not the 1st professional athlete to change their mind during their respective league’s moratorium period before free agent deals can officially be signed, and he certainly won’t be the last.
The Indianapolis Colts very own recently signed running back in Frank Gore just did something similar before it was apparently “cool”:
"“March 2015: Free-agent running back Frank Gore appeared set to sign a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, as was widely reported. According to multiple reports, Gore was even telling friends that he was going to sign with the Eagles. But when Gore signed a contract, it was with the Indianapolis Colts for $1 million more in guaranteed money than the Eagles were offering.”"
Each situation is a bit different, as the Colts weren’t publicly still courting Gore the way the Clippers were aggressively pursuing Jordan in the national spotlight after each player had already verbally agreed to a contract with another team. However, the end game remains the same. Each player had a change of heart, and each backed out of their prior verbal agreement with one team to later sign with another team before the moratorium period ended.
January 15, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) moves the ball against the defense of Dallas Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) during the first half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
To be honest, I’m surprised that more of this doesn’t happen more often. While it’s an unwritten rule that a team doesn’t pursue a player once he has verbally committed to another team, there’s no way it can actually be enforced and a punishment realistically issued because such a contract is unofficial.
With the stakes so high in professional sports to win, and such pressure falling on ownership, management, coaches, and players alike from top to bottom, each team is going to do whatever it takes to seemingly win. If that means bending the “gentleman’s rules” of verbal agreements, so that a team ends up with DeAndre Jordan instead of JaVale McGee (an ill-advised potential Clippers backup plan), so be it, if that’s the price of actually winning games. Chip Kelly and Mark Cuban‘s feelings be damned.
The Colts clearly aren’t complaining that Gore had a change of heart, and neither are the Clippers regarding Jordan. Each team may have rubbed some elbows the wrong way and broke away from established free agent protocol in their own way, but will either team really care when they’re winning more games next season?
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