The Bucks power forward will be a free agent soon
Larry Sanders won’t be a Milwaukee Buck for much longer.
The team has completed the big man’s buyout and will announce it soon, according to a tweet from ESPN’s Marc Stein:
ESPN sources say that Milwaukee's buyout of big man Larry Sanders is all but done and sides' parting is soon to be made official
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 18, 2015
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Sanders signed a 4-year, $44 million contract in August 2013.
It’s quite a hard fall for a player who was considered a possible budding star back in 2012-13, when he averaged 9.8 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, good for 45th place in the NBA in PER.
So how did we get here, to the team buying out his contract, unable to make a trade? Let’s go step by step:
- December 2013: Sanders gets into a nightclub altercation that results in him missing 25 games with a torn ligament in his thumb.
- January 2014: A locker room altercation is witnessed between Sanders and teammate Gary Neal is which Neal shouts, “I earned my money. Why don’t you try it?”
- March 20, 2014: Bucks announce that Sanders will miss the rest of the season.
- April 4, 2014: Sanders’ first suspension for a failed drug test.
- Summer 2014: The Bucks start dangling Sanders in trades according to some reports.
- Jan. 5, 2015: Sanders reportedly tells the team he “doesn’t want to play basketball anymore.”
- Jan. 19, 2015: Sanders is suspended 10 games for his fourth positive test for marijuana.
- Feb. 11, 2015: Sanders’ 10-game suspension ends, but he can’t come back just yet because he is not “in full compliance” with his treatment program.
That’s most of it: how Sanders went from a valuable piece on a young team to having his contract bought out. For his part, Sanders sent out this ominous-sounding tweet:
Soon you all will know the truth.
— L8show (@l8show_thegoat) February 10, 2015
Whatever that means. It sounds more like a tagline for a Dan Brown novel than an explanation for a buyout. If you are embarking on a Da Vinci Code-style quest, then best of luck, Larry Sanders.
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