It was a long, arduous negotiation, but the Bulls finally locked up Luol Deng. I estimated Deng’s value to be $11-$12 million per season, and he ultimately signed for $11.83 million per season.
Given his modest background growing up in the Sudan and Egypt before moving to London, Deng stressed to the Bulls that he was not bluffing when he vowed to play next season on a one-year qualifying offer worth about $4.5 million for the right to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2009.
The Bulls then gradually raised their offer to a higher annual average that Deng turned down in October, when Chicago was limited to offering him a five-year extension and presented the 6-foot-9 forward with a five-year package worth $57.5 million. As ESPN.com reported earlier this month, Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf chose to personally handle the bulk of the negotiations with Deng’s camp as opposed to the standard practice of Paxson serving as lead negotiator.
This negotiation seemed like it had been going on forever, so it’s good to see the Bulls lock up their star. Now they just have to figure out what to do with Ben Gordon.
