How I helped spend a quarter-billion dollars during 2016 NBA free-agency frenzy
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The Grizzlies spent close to $250 million on Mike Conley Jr. and Chandler Parsons in 2016. Bart Young / Getty Images
By John HollingerJuly 1, 2026 9:16 am EDT UpdatedTen years ago today, I spent a quarter-billion dollars of somebody else’s money in less than an hour.
Well, it wasn’t me, exactly, but as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies’ front office, I certainly had a prominent role in it.
In contrast to the crawl into free agency that we’ve seen in 2026, where “pre-agency” took many of the best players off the table before they ever hit the market and most of the rest of the good ones are also re-signing with their own teams, NBA free agency in 2016 was madness.
A sudden spike in the salary cap had resulted in virtually every team in the league having significant cap space. And with significantly more cap space than talent, well … mistakes were made.
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Save for one key player, virtually the entirety of free agency that year happened in 24 hours, starting at 9 p.m. PT in a series of hotels and agents’ houses in the L.A. area.
While a select group of teams waited nervously on the other side of the country for Kevin Durant to meet with them in the Hamptons, everyone else was Richard Pryor in “Brewster’s Millions,” trying to burn through their cap space as quickly as possible before the game of free-agency musical chairs ended.
What a time to be alive.
If you weren’t willing to fork out in the high eight figures for another team’s ninth-best player, five other teams were lined up behind you, ready to do it. And this was in 2016 money — with max contracts below $30 million — not 2026 money!
The first announced deal came just at the stroke of midnight on the East Coast, when Timofey Mozgov was reported to be going to the Los Angeles Lakers for four years and $64 million. Things quickly degenerated from there.
To give you an idea of where things stood: We were upset that we couldn’t get a meeting with Kent Bazemore to offer him a near-max contract, something he eventually signed with the Atlanta Hawks.
We had a meeting at the first possible moment — 9 p.m. in L.A. — with little-used Indiana Pacers forward Solomon Hill, and realized our hopes of getting him for “just” four years and $40 million were unrealistic given the multiple rivals lining up to beat our offer (New Orleans eventually got him for four years and $52 million).
We tried to get Eric Gordon to take $40 million, since he’d known our star guard, Mike Conley, since childhood; we didn’t know he had more than $50 million waiting for him in Houston.
We also bailed on a five-team bidding war for a player who averaged seven points the previous season, when we all stopped, looked at each other and asked, “What are we doing here?” He got nearly as much as Hill and Gordon.
However, we quickly agreed to three contracts that day, totaling $253 million. Our owner, Robert Pera, posted a clip of a baby throwing dollar bills out the window.
— Robert Pera (@RobertPera) July 2, 2016
Amazingly, two of the deals turned out well. Conley signed what was, at the time, the richest contract in NBA history: a five-year, $153 million deal to stay with us in Memphis. He played well enough to return two first-round picks near the end of that contract. And James Ennis signed with us on a two-year, $6 million deal for our cap room exception. He ended up starting for us in the playoffs.
Alas, the other deal didn’t work out so well: Chandler Parsons signed a four-year, $94 million deal with us that, of course, went down as one of the biggest lemon contracts in NBA history.
I won’t get into the details of how that decision came about, but I will say that we weren’t alone. That day, several of the worst contracts of the current century came into being.
In addition to Mozgov, Hill and our Parsons deal, the carnage from that summer is quite the cautionary tale: Bazemore got four years and $70 million from the Hawks; Nic Batum got five years and $120 million from Charlotte; Andre Drummond got five years and $130 million from Detroit; Allen Crabbe got a four-year $75 million offer sheet from Brooklyn that Portland matched; Evan Turner got four years and $70 million from Portland; Luol Deng got four years and $70 million from the Lakers; Joakim Noah got four years and $72 million from New York; Bismack Biyombo got four years and $72 million Orlando; Ian Mahinmi got four years and $64 million from Washington; Andrew Nicholson got for years and $26 million from Washington; Miles Plumlee got four years and $52 million from Milwaukee; Dwight Howard got three years and $70 million from Atlanta; Ryan Anderson got four years and $80 million from Houston; Jon Leuer got four years and $42 million from Detroit.
Every single one of the above contracts ended horribly, as they were either stretched, waived or dumped by the teams that signed them (Hill, Plumlee and Parsons were traded for each other three years later).
How Did We Get Here?
Analysis: Why the Hawks traded for Chandler Parsons and his $25 million salary
Parsons doesn't offer the Hawks much salary cap relief. But if he can stay healthy, he could offer meaningful minutes.
Fortunately, lessons were learned. Thanks to this fit of irrational exuberance, the NBA realized the benefits of cap smoothing and more-friendly contract-extension language in the collective bargaining agreement.
As a result, we’re launching into a gentler version of free agency today — one with just a handful of cap room teams, and far fewer key players available to be signed away from their former teams.
Spending a quarter billion dollars on unrestricted free agents in one day takes a lot more effort now.
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Tagged To: NBABadenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
