Fisher signs six-year deal with Warriors
Caroncollector
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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Point guard Derek Fisher has agreed to a six-year, $37 million contract with the Golden State Warriors, his agent, Mark Bartelstein, said Thursday.
A Warriors spokesman said the deal hadn't been finalized, but might be announced later Thursday night. Bartlestein expected the paperwork to be signed late in the day.
Derek Fisher will head up the coast after signing a $37 million contract with Golden State. (Elsa / GettyImages)
Fisher spent eight seasons with the Lakers, who drafted him out of Arkansas-Little Rock in 1996. The Lakers won three championships with Fisher as a primary ballhandler for Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant - but when Los Angeles signed Gary Payton last summer, Fisher was relegated to the bench.
Fisher averaged just 7.1 points and 2.3 assists last season as Payton's backup, but didn't complain about his diminished role. In Game 5 of the second round of the playoffs, Fisher made one of the greatest shots in the Lakers' storied playoff history: an 18-foot jumper as time expired to beat the San Antonio Spurs.
But Fisher wanted more playing time next season, and it probably wasn't available in Los Angeles.
A day after Payton exercised his $5.4 million option for next season on June 22, Fisher opted out of the final two years of his deal with the Lakers. Fisher, who turns 30 next month, would have made just $3 million in Los Angeles in each of the next two seasons.
Even Bryant's return to the Lakers didn't sway Fisher, one of Bryant's closest friends on the team. Bryant agreed to a seven-year deal worth more than $136 million earlier Thursday.
Fisher will join a crowded backcourt in Golden State, with Speedy Claxton and Nick Van Exel also on the roster. But Van Exel and Claxton both spent significant portions of last season on the injured list, and forward Mike Dunleavy was forced to play point guard in the final weeks of the season.
Unless one point guard is traded, Van Exel - another longtime Lakers point guard - might see more playing time as a shooting guard alongside Jason Richardson and swingman Mickael Pietrus.
On Wednesday, Chris Mullin, the Warriors' new executive vice president of basketball operations, re-signed center Adonal Foyle to a six-year deal worth nearly $42 million.
The Warriors, who have endured 10 straight losing seasons since last making the playoffs in 1994, expect to lose center Erick Dampier to free agency in the next few days.
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