Spencer Jones would not be denied his South American vacation.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets both tried. But Jones was as tenacious a traveler as he is a defender. By the time his annual trip with friends was over, he had probably spent more time in airplanes and airports than on the ground in Colombia. Twice, he was called back to the United States. Twice, he plotted a new course to rejoin the group around Cartagena.
“The trips were insane,” he said. “One of the trips had three or four legs to it. … Getting to Oklahoma City, there were only like two options to get there.”
Jones’ journey to a two-year, $12 million contract with the Nuggets is one he’ll never forget. The 25-year-old wing is as sharp as anyone in the NBA, a Stanford alum who once flirted with a future in biomedical engineering before his basketball career panned out. But this is the story of a brain fart.
Jones was in Colombia on July 25 when Oklahoma City contacted him to extend an offer sheet. It was almost a month after he and Denver had been allowed to start negotiating. The Nuggets were playing the long game. They held his restricted free agency rights, giving them most of the leverage and enabling them to match any outside offers he might receive.
They were inviting him to go find one.
“I had scheduled an overseas trip around that time that was happening, because I was at least hoping my free agency wouldn’t last that long,” said Jones, who was on a two-way contract just six months ago.
Planning his vacation too early wasn’t the mistake, though. Jones knew this was a possibility. Restricted free agency has a way of drawing out. It was doing the same for one of his teammates, Peyton Watson.
“We talked about it. Just from the player sphere, you know, all the players, we hate restricted free agency,” Jones said, laughing. “… I wasn’t familiar with it because I was like, ‘Oh, sweet’ (after my two-way contract was converted). The bad side of the two-way is, it’s hard to get that (roster) spot and everything like that. But the upside is it’s pretty much a one-year deal, so if I have a great year like I did, boom, I’m right into free agency. And then I learned about restricted free agency.”
Jones knew Watson was Denver’s top priority. He had ascertained that he would probably need to secure an offer sheet from a third party if he wanted to force the Nuggets to the table. That process was moving slowly due to other free agency logjams around the NBA. The Clippers were still under investigation for circumventing the salary cap. LeBron James was keeping the world waiting for his decision.
“So many random factors that just stalled free agency for pretty much everybody. Those I don’t think were unique concerns to me, but they definitely impacted (my situation),” Jones said. “Like, some of those teams were in the mix where we were taking calls from (them) as well, just figuring it out. … The whole time, I acted like I was pretty much coming back here. Through the whole negotiation process, I was still mostly in Denver, working out with the guys.”
Until Colombia. Thunder general manager Sam Presti gave Jones the call he had been waiting for, ushering him to Oklahoma. After multiple layovers, he arrived, passed his physical and signed his offer sheet to join one of Denver’s most formidable adversaries. The Nuggets had 48 hours to match the offer and automatically retain him, or to let him walk. Jones knew the drill. Or so he thought.
He flew back to Colombia, assuming there would be no urgency for him to report to Denver if retained.
“I didn’t think I’d have to do another physical with them,” he said. “That was not true.”
Jones reunited with his friends as the clock ticked. He hoped Denver would match, but he felt at peace knowing he would be on a good team either way. Two days later, Nuggets co-general managers Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace called with good news and bad news.
“It was great,” he said. “They were like, ‘Yeah, would love to have you back.’ It was a great call. Definitely happy to be back. But then not happy that I had to leave Colombia yet again to do a physical in Denver. And then went back down to finish my trip.”
Jones has been getting more involved with the National Basketball Players Association throughout the last year, as he’s ascended from an undrafted two-way player to a rotation piece in Denver. Earlier in the summer, he traveled to Morocco for an NBPA-sponsored trip to learn about business and investing. His contract experience helped familiarize him with the proclivities of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
“Would I like it to change? Sure,” he said of restricted free agency. “But there’s also a lot of things in the league, in the PA, stuff like that, we talk about changing. So there’s some other priorities I would probably put up first.”
Maybe, for example, that updated physical with the team that already had his medical records didn’t need to be so urgent.
By the end of three round-trips to South America, Jones had flown more than 15,000 miles.
“It kind of ruined my trip,” he said. “But I’ll ruin my trip for $12 million.”
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