Friday, September 23, 2005

Finally, Songaila signs with Bulls

What a favor!

Finally, Songaila signs with Bulls
: Give an assist to the Sacramento Kings for helping the Bulls land forward Darius Songaila, who signed a two-year contract Thursday that will pay him $2.2 million this season.
...
"Closing the deal proved to be as complicated as agent Mark Bartelstein originally anticipated. Songaila was a restricted free agent, which gave the Kings -- who had their own salary-cap issues -- the right to match any offer sheet tendered to the 6-9, 248-pounder.

'We got Sacramento to rescind their qualifying offer, which made him unrestricted,'' Bartelstein said. 'It's kind of an unusual maneuver in this business. But [Kings operations chief] Geoff Petrie and I have a really good relationship, and Darius was really highly sought after. The first day of free agency, we probably had 15 teams that wanted to get him.''

Had Songaila been unrestricted from the start of free agency, Bartelstein suggested his client could have commanded a five-year deal worth up to $35 million."

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