Even though Dikembe Mutombo is going to get his jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks next season, did you know that he’s actually played more games for the Denver Nuggets than Atlanta?
And Mutombo’s career would’ve been much different if he stayed in Denver, that’s if then Nuggets GM Bernie Bickerstaff re-signed him back in 1996.
In negotiations with the Nuggets, Mutombo’s agent, David Falk, was seeking a 10-year deal, Bickerstaff said.
“That’s something we should have done,” he said. “We tried. We offered it, but ownership didn’t want to go that far out, in terms of a 10-year deal. It’s like when Magic got that long deal, everyone was asking ‘Why would you do that?’ That was a terrific deal when you start talking about the present value of money. But that’s really the only regret you had, that you didn’t (re-sign) him.”
According to Bickerstaff there was a lot of work being done behind the scenes to secure Mutombo’s stay in Denver.
“David Falk and those guys, they tried to work with us because Mutombo, he wanted to stay,” Bickerstaff said. “Falk tried to work with us in terms of trying to acquire other players (to clear money). The organization at the time just didn’t have the resources. It’s that simple. Because if we could have kept that group together, that was a pretty good team.”
Hmm. 10 years? I mean in hindsight we’d all say “Why didn’t you go for it?!”. But come on a 10 year deal? Do you see baseball teams doing those deals now? Well yes but do they ever pan out? Most of the time it’s a no.
I don’t think Bickerstaff should be at himself up too much, I mean if you’d ask any GM they’d probably say he did the right thing.
