Brendan Haywood to Bobcats

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print

Former North Carolina center Brendan Haywood has been claimed by the Charlotte Bobcats, the team announced Saturday.

NBA teams were notified at 5 p.m. Saturday the Bobcats had lodged the winning bid in a blind auction to claim Haywood, who was released Thursday by the Dallas Mavericks via the one-time amnesty clause.

NBA.com reported the Bobcats' winning bid was just more than $2 million, which means Dallas must pay roughly $6.3 million of Haywood's $8.3 million salary in 2012-13.

Releasing Haywood via amnesty wiped the $27.2 million he's owed over the next three seasons off the Mavericks' books for salary-cap and luxury-tax purposes. The Bobcats now will assume more than $6 million of that financial obligation.

Haywood played as a teammate in Washington alongside Charlotte owner Michael Jordan.

Only teams under the salary cap can bid on players waived via the amnesty clause. The waiver process takes 48 hours, with players released via amnesty gaining unrestricted free agency if they go unclaimed.

That provision made Darko Milicic an unrestricted free agent Saturday. The No. 2 overall pick behind LeBron James in the 2003 draft -- amnestied Thursday by the Minnesota Timberwolves -- cleared waivers.

By using its one-time amnesty clause on Haywood, Dallas went under the salary cap and used the resultant space to sign former All-Star center Chris Kaman to a one-year deal worth $8 million and then lodge a winning bid of $2.1 million in Friday's waiver auction for former All-Star Elton Brand, who was released via amnesty Wednesday by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Sources say the Mavericks are also one of the prime suitors with interest in bidding Sunday for Luis Scola, who was amnestied Friday by the Houston Rockets.

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Sacramento Kings, sources told ESPN.com, are also seriously weighing whether to register a blind bid for Scola, whose existing three-year contract means the minimum amnesty bid is just more than $3 million for next season and $10-plus million through 2014-15.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print
• Subscribe

Marc Stein | email

Senior Writer, ESPN.com

• Follow
• Archive

• Senior NBA writer for ESPN.com
• Began covering the NBA in 1993-94
• Also covered soccer, tennis and the Olympics