The Kings Signed Nemanja Bjelica And Yogi Ferrell After They Backed Out On Other Deals

Every summer when free agency rolls around on July 1, there’s a reason why sports scribes have to be so careful about the verbiage they use when describing which players agreed to sign with which teams. During the moratorium period, players are free to meet with prospective organizations and offer them verbal agreements that they will theoretically sign contracts once that period has ended.

That “verbal agreement” part is key because nothing is set in stone until they actually sign on the dotted line. Granted, it’s extremely rare for players to renege on these gentlemen’s agreements, but it’s certainly not unheard of. The most notorious example of this happened a few years ago when DeAndre Jordan went back on his promise to sign with the Mavericks, a development that sparked one of the most hilariously weird Twitter happenings in recent memory.

Now, it appears the Mavericks are once again at the center of a situation involving a free agent signee having second thoughts, though this time of a decidedly more low-profile variety. Early Friday morning, Yahoo Sports reported that Yogi Ferrell had withdrawn his promise to sign with his incumbent team and just a few hours later announced that he’d signed a deal with the Kings instead.

Nemanja Bjelica did something similar when he reneged on the one-year deal he’d agreed to with the Sixers in order to sign a more lucrative three-year contract, also with the Kings.

So, we suppose kudos are in order for the Kings for aggressively poaching random players for someone reason, and our condolences to the Mavericks once again, whose collective trust must be at an all-time low these days.