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Deron Williams Still Undecided on Future
Posted By Alex Raskin On May 22, 2012 @ 1:35 pm In All,NBA | No Comments
Point guard Deron Williams has already declared his intentions to opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent this summer, but he has yet to decide anything beyond that.
There has been no shortage of speculation as to where the three-time All-Star is headed. Some believe Williams, who grew up in the Dallas area, would join the Mavericks as a free agent. Other media had Williams staying with the Nets in Brooklyn as he had reportedly met with owner Mikhail Prokhorov and general manager Billy King during a recent trip to Russia.
But Williams addressed the media during the Nets free agent mini-camp to say that’s all conjecture.
“I want to reiterate, I don’t know what I’m doing next year, still, nobody does but me,” he said. “Not even my mom, my brother, my uncle, my cousin—I haven’t talked to anybody about where I’m going next year.”
Basically, Williams is tired of hearing his every move being interpreted as some indication of where he’d like to sign as a free agent.
For instance, many people believe that Williams will re-sign with the Nets because he’s continued to stay in the New York City area even after the team’s season ended. Of course, there are other explanations.
“I’m here right now because I sold my house in San Diego, so I can’t go there,” Williams said. “I have a house in Utah that I’m trying to sell, but it has no furniture, so I can’t go there. Plus, my kids are in school until June 28th, so I have to sit here, and then I leave on July 5th for the Olympic training. So it doesn’t really make sense for me to go anywhere. I do not have a house in Dallas, so I wouldn’t go there.”
Williams also denied that his brother is going to school in New Jersey next year.
And what about the trip to Russia and Turkey where he hung with King?
“I’ve heard comments that people make, like he’s going to Dallas,” he said. “Then people say I’m staying here for sure because, you know, I went to Russia. Yeah, I went Russia. I’ve never been to Russia. AK (former Jazz teammate Andrei Kirilenko) has been telling me to come to Russia for the last six years. It was close to Turkey, I went to Turkey because I love Turkey and I played there for three months. I wanted to see my teammates. I wanted to check out some games, so I went to Istanbul.
“I just hate that people think they know where I’m going because I don’t know where I’m going, so there’s no way for them to know… There could be another team that comes into the picture.”
While he doesn’t know where he’ll end up, he did say he hopes to know by July 1st because “it will only be between a couple of teams anyways.” He went on to say that he planned on talking with agent Jeff Schwartz about the situation today.
Williams admitted that he’s flattered by the fans’ interest in seeing where he’s going, but the constant gossip is getting to him.
Yes, he still wears Nets gear, but that’s because he’s working out at the team facility in preparation for the summer Olympics.
He’s also a fan of the team’s new logo, saying that he’s known about it since “last year.” Williams has even seen the yet-to-be released Brooklyn Nets uniform.
But none of that—absolutely none of that—means he knows where he’s going next year.
Williams hasn’t spoken to any team and he won’t be meeting with anyone from the Mavericks when he goes back to Texas this week.
In other words: Check back with him on July 10th, when the free agent signing period begins.
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