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Kent Bazemore recalled a 2-year-old slight when it came to turn down the Lakers
Basketball players have long memories. They have to, for myriad reasons, some of which have to do with how much money they can possibly make in this league.
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OK, a lot of these reasons have to do with money. In a setup where one-on-one play and/or team accomplishments aren’t enough to satiate one’s competitive streak, finding solace in perceived slights is almost a prerequisite for staving off nature red in tooth and claw.
Atlanta’s Kent Bazemore isn’t working off of a perceived slight, though. The Hawks swingman needed a legitimate two-year-old grudge to push him over the top when it came to deciding to turn down a significant enough $2 million from the Los Angeles Lakers last summer, mostly because the Lakers declined Bazemore’s services two summers before that.
Los Angeles offered Bazemore four years and $72 million last offseason, while the Hawks offered four years and $70 million. The Orange County Register’s Mark Medina explains why:
Bazemore acknowledged his decision partly stemmed from the Lakers declining a $1.1 million qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent in 2014. After striking out on James, Anthony and Gasol, the Lakers also narrowed in on Jeremy Lin, Nick Young and Jordan Hill before pursuing Bazemore. He agreed to a two-year deal worth $6 million with Atlanta shortly afterward.
“One thing you want in this league is to be wanted. They didn’t pick it up for that little amount of money,” Bazemore said. “So that showed how much they believed in me and my abilities. That closed that chapter.”
The Lakers, finally post-Kobe Bryant, have put together a solid-enough nucleus of young talent. Losing out on the chance to keep Kent Bazemore on the cheap (and, later on, “the expensive”) is another in a long line of embarrassments, though.
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With 36-year-old Bryant and Byron Scott on board, the Lakers weirdly hoped to make a free-agent splash in the summer of 2014, working with salary cap space in spite of Bryant’s $23.5 million salary in 2014-15. Big name free agents, however, were hard to come by: LeBron James swept back into Cleveland, Carmelo Anthony took as much money as he could in New York, Pau Gasol became smitten with Chicago, while scores of others declined the Lakers’ advances – weary of Bryant’s lion in winter-tendencies and Scott’s coaching.
In the end, the Lakers ended up dealing for Jeremy Lin and signing Carlos Boozer. The Hawks took a small chance on Bazemore, who contributed 5.2 points per game off the bench for a team that finished with the best record in the East, while the Lakers won 21 games. Another stellar year continued in 2015-16, as Bazemore added 11 points and five rebounds in under 28 minutes a night, filling in admirably with the defection of DeMarre Carroll to Toronto.
Remember, Kent Bazemore is the man who wrote “499” on his shoes after ESPN voted him the 499th (out of 500)-best player in the NBA back in 2013. This is not a man who is keen to forget those who have wronged and/or underestimated him, even if it means costing himself a couple of million bucks along the way.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
