Suns Sign Googs for $60m

January 24, 1999

Suns Sign Googs for $60m

   The Phoenix Suns apparently have reached a contract agreement with forward Tom Gugliotta, considered the best of the remaining free agent crop. The Associated Press yesterday reported that Gugliotta was en route to Phoenix, where he is expected to sign a six-year contract worth about $60 million.


The deal will have a clause allowing him to opt out after five years, when he would be eligible for a much bigger salary as a 10-year player. Gugliotta, 29, could have made more money by re-signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves but said he was more interested in finding a team and city that were the right fit . . . The deal to bring center Luc Longley to the Suns from the Chicago Bulls was approved by the NBA. The Suns also announced they had re-signed George McCloud. The trade, confirmed by the Suns earlier in the week, sends Mark Bryant, Martin Muursepp, Bubba Wells, and a first-round draft pick to the Bulls for the 7-foot-2-inch center.

The Bulls will get either the worse of Phoenix's two first-round draft picks this year or the Suns' first-round pick in 2001 . . . The Houston Rockets signed former Jazz backup center Antoine Carr. Carr averaged 5.7 points and 2.0 rebounds per game last season, helping Utah win the Western Conference championship. He's also played for Atlanta, Sacramento, and San Antonio in his 14-year NBA career . . . Jalen Rose is in an uncomfortable situation. He wants to be a free agent, but hopes to stay with the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers say he belongs to them and the NBA agrees. Rose is awaiting an arbitration ruling to settle the dispute. The contract Rose signed as a rookie with Denver in 1994 declared him a restricted free agent after his fourth season. But the NBA has signed two collective bargaining agreements since then and no longer has restricted free agents. Rose's agent, Norm Nixon, has requested a ruling from the league and hopes to receive one before the start of the season Feb. 5.