Miami Heat shooting guard Tyler Johnson signed an offer sheet with the Brooklyn Nets worth $50 million over four seasons this offseason. The Heat eventually decided to match this offer sheet. $50 million is a lot of money for a 24-year-old kid who just finished his second NBA season. Johnson’s initial reaction to the deal was one of utter shock, reports Sun Sentinal writer Ira Winderman:
“I threw up a couple of times when I heard the number go out there. I was in shock. I even lost a little bit of weight, because just the anxiety of going through that whole process and not knowing where I was going to be,” the Miami Heat guard said Monday during a team-sponsored water-safety event at Bucky Dent Water Park.
This was before the Heat’s negotiations with Dwyane Wade fell through, and Johnson was not expecting Miami to match the offer sheet:
“I was like almost 100 percent sure I was going to end up in Brooklyn,” Johnson said Monday. “But, yeah, it’s an incredible feeling. And I’m excited to get back to work.”
The whirlwind was so absolute that Johnson said he never had a chance to reset the structure of his contract that now stands so onerous to the Heat, with $19 million salaries in each of the last two years. By the time the Heat suggested something closer to a $12.5 million split in each of the four years, Johnson said he already had given his word to the Nets to sign the offer sheet as originally drafted.
“It was very late in the process,” he said. “I had already kind of come to the assumption that everything was going to play out the way it didn’t, really, like they were going to re-sign Dwyane and everything. I think that kind of threw a wrench in everything. It was only a matter of an hour and a half where I had to make the decision of either signing an offer sheet that I kind of committed to or just not signing and restructure a new deal.
“Obviously I opted to sign it and keep the commitment I made to Brooklyn. And Miami still showed how much they wanted me to be a part of their team by matching.”
Johnson will now have fellow 24-year-old shooting guard Dion Waiters to compete for minutes with. Waiters signed a 2-year contract worth $6 million with the Heat.
