I have been following the trade talks involving Jason Kidd very closely and when word was out that Keith Van Horn might be involved i had a bit of a flashback.  Van Horn last played in the playoffs in 2006 and that was it.  He just kind of walked away from basketball.  He never officially retired and the Mavericks retained his draft rights.  I’ll bet in the past 2 years he’s been asked about his retirement 300 times.  No exaggeration there because everyone has to know why he wouldn’t just make it official.  Turns out Keith is a genius.  If I’m an Nba player that a team still has rights to I’m probably never going to retire based on what is about to happen to Van Horn. 

In case you haven’t heard Van Horn is going to be involved in the Jason Kidd deal and get a 3 year contract from the Mavs to the Nets via a sign and trade.  The Mavs will make the first year guaranteed to the tune of over 4 million dollars not pro rated.  Van Horn is going to sign a 4 million plus dollar deal just to go to New Jersey and take a physical and then go right back to what he was doing.  The Lakers did it a week before with Aaron McKie and the Mavs are just following suit.  If Van Horn had retired the Mavs wouldn’t have his rights and this would have been an impossibility.  Since he didn’t he’ll be 4 million dollars better off and make the Mavs better in the process.  Since it is a 3 year deal with only the first guaranteed the Nets will be able to now hold Van Horn’s rights again like they did when they drafted him. 

Van Horn was a very good NBA player that was never as good as he was supposed to be, but I’m sure he’s ok with that today.

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