New Orleans Pelicans big man Donatas Motiejunas is making a lot less money than he could have with the Houston Rockets or Brooklyn Nets. Due to failed physicals and disagreements with the Rockets, Motiejunas finds himself with the Pelicans for one year, making just over $618,000. Motiejunas could have made nearly $10 million this season instead, with the Nets or Rockets. Motiejunas did not enjoy his bizarre free agency experience. From Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders:
“Honestly, you can say it was business stuff, but, from my side, I’m a basketball player, I just want to play,” Motiejunas told Basketball Insiders. “Being involved in that business situation, it was one of the worst experiences of my life that I’ve had. I would say, from any basketball player, we work every day, we put our sweat, we put our tears, we put our blood on the floor, try to help and make teams better, so when someone acts with you like this, it’s just wrong.”
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“The team lost an asset,” Motiejunas told Basketball Insiders. “I lost $37, 38 million, so both sides lost in this situation. No one won in this situation actually. I know, as soon as I step on the floor, the people are going to see that I’m the same guy that I was last year when I was playing. For me, I’m not going to lose anything. After this year, someone else is going to pick me up. I’m not worried about that. I know how to play basketball. I know how to make every and each team better. I adjust to the situation depending on what coach asks me to do, so I’m not worried about that. It was just a ridiculous situation, the resolution was taking too long, and it was affecting me as a player, and it was affecting me personally. Instead of being a business decision it was like more of a personal decision.”
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“The hardest part, probably, was that unknown,” Motiejunas told Basketball Insiders. “Where am I going to go? Where am I going to be? What’s going to happen? I keep on talking with people. I was talking with the people in the [National Basketball Players Association]. I was talking with people from the NBA. I was talking with people from the teams and they keep on telling me, ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.’ At one point I was like, ‘Tomorrow has already been two weeks. I want to play. I’m hungry.’ I’m sitting, watching these games, and I’m like, ‘I can help each of these teams to be better.’ It was a really tough moment for me, probably all of 2016.”
Donatas Motiejunas free agency experience was truly a strange situation, and it is unlikely that he will ever have to go through something similar again, which is definitely for the best.
