After being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers from the Cleveland Cavaliers on the trade deadline last season, Ramon Sessions finally had a chance to be a starting point guard on a post-season contender. Sessions called the opportunity a dream come true, and helped lead the Lakers to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.
However, after the season Sessions opted out of his contract to test the free agent waters, only to see the Lakers acquire future Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash as his replacement. When asked about the reasoning behind his decision to opt-out, Sessions talked about the fear of being traded by the Lakers in a deal for Nash or another marquee point guard.
“It was one of those situations I looked at like, ‘If I do come back what if they trade me?’ ” Sessions said. “There were talks about getting Deron. They always wanted the bigger-named guy. What if I get traded to a team and it’s my contract year? It was one of those things that I can’t say if I opted in, [Nash] wouldn’t have come. They still might have tried to get him. You just never know.”
The above quote came from a recent Sessions interview with Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports, and is very telling of Sessions’ reasoning behind his decision to hit free agency.
Many fans were surprised that Sessions chose to opt out of his deal, but they were still expecting L.A. to bring back the young guard. When the team moved on to Steve Nash the entire league was surprised, including Sessions.
Ultimately Ramon agreed to a deal with the Charlotte Bobcats, and will be looking to continue to build his reputation with the team that were the not-so-proud owners of the worst winning percentage in league history a season ago.