It's not that difficult to make bad business deals.
Ask NBA players who have gone to turn down contracts
as big as 80 million and then fumble the bag
by choosing to opt for free agency and eventually landing
contracts which were just a fraction of what they would
have stood to make.
So in this video, let's take a look at five
such NBA players who are the definition of instant regret.
Starting with #5 we have Victor Oladipo.
The two time All Star in 2018 and 2019 was
playing for the Houston Rockets in 2021, when in February
2021 he made a major your mistake that he would
surely come to regret by turning down a two year,
$45.2 million maximum contract extension offered by the Houston Rockets,
which was, as reported by ESPN, the maximum they could
have offered him per the rules of the CBA that
time.
And while he wanted a longer deal, he would have
had to wait till the offseason for that, something he
didn't do now on the onset of the decision.
Here's what could have happened had he waited.
As per reported by ESPN, after the season concludes but
before the start of free agency, Houston would be able
to offer him as much as a full four year
$113,000,000 extension.
Once free agency begins, Houston can offer up to four
years for 151 million or five years for 195 million.
Talk about taking the L in spectacular fashion.
Oladipo fumble the bag hard as he was then traded
to the Miami Heat for Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk and
a 2022 draft pick swap and he was signed by
the Miami Heat on a one year veteran minimum deal
followed by then re signing with them in 2022 for
a two year $18.2 million deal.
Now that is greed gone wrong in more ways than
one because despite the Miami Heat making the NBA Finals
in 2023, Oladipo was sidelined with injury and didn't play
with the team.
Ouch.
A classic case of what if unfolding right in front
of us.
Which quickly brings us to #4 where we have Dennis
Schroeder, the man who was playing for the Oklahoma City
Thunder and then traded to the then reigning champions LA
Lakers on November 18th, 2020 for Danny Green and the
draft rights to first round pick Jaden McDaniels.
And while Schroeder was under his contract signed during is
Atlanta Hawk days, a four year $70 million deal with
62,000,000 guaranteed, he was supposed to be an unrestricted free
agent in 2021 and in doing so he rejected a
staggering 4 year $84 million deal from the Lakers to
test free agency.
Fortune didn't favor the bold in this case as there
were no takers for Schroeder, who was then left with
no option but to sign a one year $5.9 million
taxpayer mid level exception contract with the Boston Celtics, which
slashed his contract to a fraction of what he could
have made.
And that was all she wrote.
After bouncing around with the Celtics and the Houston Rockets,
Schroeder resigned A1 year $2.6 million deal with the Lakers
and played an important part in their playoff run which
culminated in a four nothing sweep in the conference finals
against the Denver Nuggets.
Quickly moving to #3 we have DeMarcus Cousins AKA Boogie,
a man who despite being a consecutive four time All
Star, has failed to just live up to his potential
in the league.
Cousins was having a triple double game for the Pelicans
against the Rockets in January 2018 with a stat line
of 15 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists when he
injured his Achilles and had to undergo surgery.
And matters got worse when despite his surgery, he was
offered a two year, $40 million extension by the Pelicans.
Boogie rejected that offer and instead decided to and other
offers which never came.
The result?
He himself had to call up the Golden State Warriors
organization and eventually ended up signing a one year mid
level exception for 5.3 million with the then reigning champions.
But as fate would have it, the Golden State Warriors
failed to repeat their championship success that season and rightly
so.
Boogie himself said that it was very insulting to not
receive an offer.
Insulting indeed.
Now before we reveal our top two, we would just
love it if you could like this video and subscribe
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us know in the comments section.
Which NBA player from your favorite team do you hold
guilty for fumbling the bag part and now our top
two starts with Nerlens Noel and his is an interesting
story which features a lot of drama in addition to
fumbling the bag how let's dive in.
Noel was traded to the Dallas Mavericks and the organization
filed a $4.1 million tender to make him a restricted
free agent.
And it was heavily reported that they also offered him
a four year, $70 million contract, which he, well, you
guessed it, rejected.
In a bid to look at other pursuits and offers,
he even signed with Rich Paul, the CEO of Clutch
Sports and the representative of big money stars like LeBron
James and Anthony Davis.
And as per Dan Feldman of NBC Sports, the center
market is saturated.
Plus, teams wary of Dallas matching might not waste their
time with an offer sheet which carries a projected Max
of 109,000,000 / 4 years or 27,000,000 annually.
The Mavericks, whose projected Max offer is 146,000,000 / 5
years 29,000,000 annually, might be able to work the market
to pay Noel less than his Max.
Had Noel made a deal with The Mavericks, he'd have
been rolling in some mega money, and instead, he later
accused Rich Paul of costing him 58,000,000 by filing a
lawsuit against his own agent for making him turn down
the $70 million contract.
Drama ahead.
The lawsuit, however, was settled, but Noel had already been
on the short end of the stick because, as per
Insider, Noel proceeded to sign a two year, $3.7 million
minimum deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2018.
He opted out the next season, followed by a one
year, $1.9 million contract with the Thunder the following year.
Then Noel signed a one year, $5 million contract with
the Knicks last season.
A colossal loss earns him the number two spot on
our list.
And now, quickly at number one, we have Joe Smith,
the man who was infamously involved in a highly controversial
Bird Rights scandal during his playing career, which cost him
millions despite having respectable career earnings of 61 million via
an NBA career of 16 seasons.
Joe Smith had a good start in the NBA in
his first three seasons with the Warriors, who had reportedly
offered him an 80 billion dollar contract that he turned
down.
Bizarre as it was, things started to get even more
shady when Joe Smith started signing terrible short term deals
reported by USA TODAY.
He started signing three one year deals for very little
money, allowing the Timberwolves to acquire his Bird rights which
would allow them to go over the salary cap to
resign him.
He would have been rewarded with a lucrative contract that
would have paid him up to 86 million.
Now for the uninitiated, this is a highly illegal under
the table practice and it was caught by then commissioner
David Stern and was perhaps one of the most scandal
the stories of its time while also landing Joe Smith
on our list of top five NBA players who went
broke.
Check out our video by clicking here And while acquiring
his bird rights after three one year deals or one
three-year deal that would have put him in a solid
position.
His next career moves just continued to tank his status
where he signed for very little money while going to
play for six more franchises.
Talk about a match made in hell, which brings us
to the end of this video.
We hope you liked it.
So smash that like button and subscribe to our channel
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such insightful MBA content.
And let us know in the comments section which NBA
player we may have missed on this list who fumbled
the bag.
See you in the next one.