While the Celtics likely wouldn't mind having Mickael Pietrus on their roster for next season, it appears it will take more than the veteran's minimum to bring Pietrus back. Agent Bill McCandless tells WEEI.com's Ben Rohrbach that his client won't be accepting a minimum-salary contract this summer.
"[Pietrus] will not play for the veteran’s minimum. Period," said McCandless. "It’s not happening. That’s the beginning, middle and end of that…. He is not a veteran’s minimum player. There’s no chance he’ll ever sign for that."
The minimum salary for a nine-year veteran like Pietrus would be about $1.23MM, but McCandless says he's received an offer "triple that" from a team overseas. According to the agent, he's also engaged in serious talks with a few NBA teams about Pietrus, and has discussed money "much more than the veteran minimum."
"He’s looking for a team that likes him and respects what he does," Pietrus' agent said. "If he ends up on a championship or playoff contender, that’ll take care of itself…. He’s still open to a return. He loved Boston. Everybody knows that. But we’re all big boys, and this is a big boy business."
Rather get paid! Then win.
If McCandless was my agent, I’d fire him just for saying that. Pietrus has something to offer but if all he’s interested in is money, then there are likely a bunch of teams who would gladly pay him what he thinks he’s worth. Apparently he didn’t learn anything from the Big 3 taking pay cuts to help turn a team into a winner. Sheesh, even MIA did it and won…
Pietrus comes off as a really nice guy – he may want to fire his agent after this. Even if it’s true it makes you look like a piece of dirt to those of us happy to make 50k breaking our backs all day.
And the fact is he COULD play for vets min for 1 year to play for a contender and if all doesn’t work out he could make more money next year…
I will do literally any job if you pay me the NBA veteran’s minimum for it.
Is it some kind of rule that all agents have to sound like gigantic jerks when they say anything? or…?