Friday, January 15, 2010

Dance On Fire As It Intends

Other than Shaquille O'Neal in 1996 and Steve Nash in 2004, has there been any other free agent NBA player who signed with a new team and substantially improved his new team's fortunes?

Teams like New York and Chicago hoping for a savior are likely to be disappointed, even if they get what they want.

If a team signs two new stars, there's some chance of improvement (see the Knicks of 1996, who signed Larry Johnson and Allan Houston in that hot summer of Atlanta golds and Clintonian welfare reform) but sometimes it fizzles (see Orlando of 2000, acquiring Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill). Notably, all four of those guys eventually suffered major career-ending or -retarding injuries.

3 comments:

Harpreet said...

Yinka Dare.

Anonymous said...

Better yet. Jason Kidd.

Bhel Atlantic said...

Anonymous: Jason Kidd has never signed with a new team as a free agent. He was traded from Dallas to Phoenix in 1996, then traded from Phoenix to New Jersey in 2001, then traded from New Jersey to Dallas in 2008.

Back in July 2003, when he was a free agent, there was some talk that he might sign with San Antonio, but he re-signed with the Nets.