The Nets intend to speak this week with McKie, waived Friday by the 76ers under the NBA’s amnesty clause to ease luxury-tax payments. The Sixers, who are trying to dump luxury-tax salaries, will foot McKie’s three remaining contract years at a total of $19.5 million but won’t pay any luxury tax on it.
“He is somebody we would definitely take a look at,” Nets president Rod Thorn said. “We want to see who goes under the amnesty rule Monday. Then we will prioritize those guys.”
Figure McKie would be at the top of the list. The Nets will continue to discuss the possibility of Brian Grant, cut free from the Lakers on Thursday. Michael Finley, expected to released by Dallas, would be someone else who interests the Nets, but the feeling isn’t mutual. Indiana’s Austin Croshere was targeted but he likely will not be waived. The Nets are expected to waive Ron Mercer and save $1.7 million in luxury-tax payments.
Terminally Whipped Doug Christie, whose fascinating relationship with wife Jackie is profiled in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has the following (unattributed) bomb dropped on him by the Orlando Sentinel :
Funny how one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure. In a Dallas Morning News story Friday about the Mavs’ interest in signing Doug Christie, it says the guard “could provide the Mavericks with locker room leadership.”
Christie, waived by Orlando last week under the one-time-use amnesty policy in the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union, is the one who walked out on the Magic without telling anyone last season after he was replaced in the starting lineup. “There isn’t a single guy in our locker room who wanted Doug back this season,” said one Magic official.