By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
It’s not a secret that Jordan Farmar wanted an NBA return and also that Anadolu Efes is ready to let him go. However, the money aspect of the situation is astonishing. The 26 years old guard has two years left in a 10,5 m. dollars deal for three years with Efes, but he is willing to lose all this money in order to sign just one million dollars contract and be again a part of the Lakers.
As he said in an interview in ESPN: “The plan for me was to get back to the NBA eventually regardless. I really, really enjoyed my time in Israel. I thought it was a possibility that it would be exactly the same [in Turkey] and I would hop on over there and never look back and I would make good money overseas, but just being over there and staying up until 2, 3, 4 in the morning and watching every NBA game, or watching the Lakers go through what they were going through was just tough. I missed my family, I missed being home and, ultimately, I missed being a Laker.”
The Lakers still have to pay a 500.000 dollars buy out to Efes in order to get the player, but since the Turkish team wants to cut its budget, the decision of Farmar suits them perfectly and the deal is expected to be sealed in the next days.