Abdel Nader faced a dilemma.
Reading between the lines, Nader – whom the Celtics drafted No. 58 and then impressed at summer league – had two choices:
- Reject Boston’s required tender (a one-year contract, surely unguaranteed at the minimum, a team must extend to keep a players draft rights) and join the D-League. It seemed Nader pledged to go this route contingent on the Celtics drafting him, allowing them to keep his rights another year.
- Accept Boston’s required tender. He would’ve gone to training camp, almost definitely gotten waived and then become a free agent. He still could’ve gone to the D-League, but the Celtics no longer would’ve held exclusive negotiating rights.
Nader apparently chose the former.
Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports:
Sources: After rejecting lucrative offer in Europe, Boston second-rounder Abdel Nader has committed to signing D-League contract with Maine.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 22, 2016
Nader’s mistake was agreeing to this arrangement in the first place. It allowed the Celtics to hold undue power over his career in exchange for… what? The honor of being drafted? Professional sports leagues have so successfully marketed the draft, labor celebrates this anti-labor system. It’s absurd.
Yet, if Nader promised to do something, he promised to do it. Should it matter that he later realized he shouldn’t have made the promise? His word matters, too.
I don’t envy Nader’s situation. The only hope is that fewer players put themselves in it in the future.
