The link between Luol Deng and the Lakers is over. It’s about time, as some may think. The former NBA forward retired in 2019, but continued to collect from the Los Angeles team thanks to a contract signed in 2016. It was one of the many contractual excesses of the Los Angeles team in its darkest stage, that which was from 2014 to 2020, with a series of playoff absences totally contrary to what they represent as a franchise, from a historical and also a sporting point of view. Dire seasons that were partially fixed with the arrival of LeBron James and were forgotten after the 2020 ring. But they are there, they are recent, and they are still part of what has been a team that this year has again run out of playoffs with a much better squad than the ones I had at the time.
Luol Deng’s fame and reputation was built on the Bulls under Tom Thibodeau. Over there, along with Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah, among others, reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2011. An ephemeral success that seemed like it was going to last until Rose, MVP that season, fell into an eternal spiral of injuries that have been with him constantly. Deng was famous for his commitment and dedication: a good scorer and a solid defender, Thibodeau, a man who rarely looked at the bench, used a huge number of minutes. In fact, the forward led the competition in minutes in 2012 and 2013, years in which he was also an All Star.
In the Lakers, and already far from his best level, Deng signed his last big contract in 2016, in those Lakers in which Magic Johnson took his first steps on the board to end up saying goodbye years later through the back doornow without the support of Jeannie Buss and with Rob Pelinka getting what he had half left (to Anthony Davis, Sure). Magic signed Deng for four years at a rate of 72 million dollars, a huge figure in the middle of an era of rising salaries and with the 2017 agreement just around the corner, but already with many benefits from the 2014 television contract, which gave the NBA 24,000 million in nine years, a real barbarity. And something that has cost the Lakers dearly, who have had to continue paying… until now.
Deng’s case is not identical to that of other players, such as Chris Bosh or Kevin Garnett. The first, due to health problems, retired early, but he continued to receive his salary and in 2018-19, without playing, he was the highest paid of the Heat, with 25 million dollars. Garnett had spent 21 seasons in the best league in the world and had a contract year ahead of him with his Timberwolves, but decided to put an end to his spectacular career. Mind you, he got the money from him. In Deng’s case, the Lakers tried not to pay him two years ago, but the NBA dismissed the appeal. The Angelenos stretched and divided the money to make it more affordable for the future and they have finished paying him this last year. He has received 5 million dollars, a salary only behind LeBron, Davis, Westbrook and Horton-Tucker. Also identical to that of Kendrick Nunn. For some, almost a fraud. A fist that the Lakers finally get rid of. In times of crisis, it does not seem like a great joy. But anyway: it’s something.