Antonio McDyess finally made up his mind and will return to the Denver Nuggets.
McDyess spent Thursday in Denver meeting with Nuggets officials, but the day ended with McDyess leaving McNichols Arena without having signed a contract. Friday morning, however, the deal was closed.McDyess reportedly signed a six-year deal worth $67.5 million.
His signing should clear the way for Tom Gugliotta, Vlade Divac and other free agents to make deals. The Suns, after losing out in a last-second bid to hang on to McDyess, are expected to focus on Gugliotta now.
"We're interested to hear what led to this," Phoenix general manager Bryan Colangelo said. "It would be shortsighted not to listen to what Antonio has to say. Waiting one more day can't hurt."
But James Bryant, one of McDyess' agents, hinted it's likely that the Suns are out of the McDyess sweepstakes.
"Phoenix has been calling all day, and their biggest complaint is we don't return their phone calls," Bryant said from Denver. "We certainly haven't tried to send the kid back there."
The job of processing each and every new contract and trade was a slow one on the first full non-lockout day since June 30, and the expected signings of McDyess, Divac, Jerry Stackhouse, Hot Rod Williams, Christian Laettner and Joe Smith were delayed for one reason or another.
By the end of the day, there were 56 signings and five trades that had been announced. But the Chicago Bulls, for example, did not have any of their transactions cleared.
General manager Jerry Krause said the new player contracts were so different from past ones that there was a backlog in the league office.
Several deals went through, including Latrell Sprewell being traded from Golden State to New York, Jayson Williams re-signing with New Jersey, and a three-way trade between Minnesota, Denver and Toronto.
Most of the teams opened training camps, and they will have only a few days to practice before the regular season starts Feb. 5.
Each team will play 50 games in 90 nights.
For some of the players, the small amount of preparation time will make it difficult to get back into game shape quickly.
Shawn Kemp of the Cleveland Cavaliers was carrying around at least 20 extra pounds during the lockout.
"This is my 10th season. My condition is not too bad," Kemp said before going through practice with the Cavs.
"I think Shawn Kemp gave every ounce he could out there today," Cleveland coach Mike Fratello said. "He understands we all have some work to do. He worked hard. I don't know how much more he could have done."
The first deal to clear the league office Thursday was the trade sending Latrell Sprewell to the New York Knicks for John Starks, Chris Mills and Terry Cummings.
Sprewell brings a tarnished reputation to a team anxious over the public relations risk. He was suspended for 68 games last season and had his contract terminated after he choked and threatened to kill coach P.J. Carlesimo at a Warriors practice.
"I'm not here to judge him, I'm here to coach him," Jeff Van Gundy said. "I'm not really thinking about what happened in the past, I'm really thinking about what we can do in the future. He's a talent, he's a competitor and he's a complement to some of the other guys we have here."
The Knicks reiterated that they were not interested in signing free-agent forward Dennis Rodman. Rodman plans to elaborate on his future tonight on the "Tonight Show."
The sign-and-trade deal sending Scottie Pippen to the Rockets was being held up because of unspecified contract language problems. It was expected to be finalized today.
Coach Rudy Tomjanovich canceled the scheduled first practice that was supposed to follow the announcement of Pippen's arrival.
"I wanted to thank all the fans for being very warm to me around the city the little time I've been here," Pippen said. "I'm looking forward to bringing a champion here. I can see I'm going to have a wonderful career here."
The Rockets also re-signed free agent Charles Barkley for $1 million. Barkley signed his contract on the 10th tee at La Quinta, Calif., where he was playing in the Bob Hope Desert Classic.