Via PhillyBurbs.com, 76ers head coach Doug Collins announced the team is signing former Thunder backup Royal Ivey to a veteran minimum deal ($1.23 million).
The 31-year-old Ivey, who is believed to be earning the ninth-year veterans’ minimum of $1.23 million, previously played for the Sixers in 2008-09 and the first part of the 2009-10 season, spent the last two seasons with the Thunder. Ivey gives the Sixers 13 guys with guaranteed contracts. They might carry one more player. The league limit is 15.
With Oklahoma City, Ivey appeared in 59 games over two seasons averaging 1.8 points and 0.3 assists per game. He was mostly an insurance policy off the bench, but saw some spot minutes during Thabo Sefolosha’s injury last season and showed some pretty solid defensive ability.
I don't have the opportunity to go to too many games, but I may have to go out of my way to see the Sixers next time they come to town. They now have two of my favorite non-Thunder players on their roster: Iggy and Cheese. Hard working, high character guys.
by the way....June 2 ;)
Also a big Ivey fan and (sorry for my upcoming rant) but think Brooks treated him terribly. Didn't one of the announcers even make a comment about how he sat on the bench like Brooks did? Vaguely remember that. Oh well, now a good reason to keep an eye on the 76ers and see if he gets to play much.
I'm a big Royal Ivey fan and did not want him leaving our team. He does a lot of things well and always gives maximum effort when called upon to play. I know Presti had to slash every dollar possible to facilitate signing James, but I would have kept Royal Ivey. On my TSN scale--I had Royal at 89%...which is one of the higher ratings on the team. Philly was my favorite NBA team until we had NBA hoops in OKC--so from theat view..I'm glad Royal is on a team which I like and think is headed in the right direction.
I have complete and total respect for Royal Ivey as a professional basketball player.
Good luck in Philly, Royal. I loved watching you compete.
Best of luck, Royal.
Good luck to Royal. Wish circumstances were different and we could have cut someone else.
I'll miss the player Bill Simmons labeled "The Chemist". Perhaps my favorite moment of the entire season was watching Royal absolutely HOUND Tony Parker for a number of possessions in the regular season. He got Tony to throw the ball backwards out of bounds on a 3-point attempt. Who does that? Awesome.
Royal is a good player i think he would have been scary on the spurs, the secret about Royal is not to let him play point
Really glad he didn't land with the Spurs.
@Jo_Cro That would have been just what OKC deserves for keeping Lazar over Ivey and Williams.
They kept Lazar because he is under contract. Ivey wasn't.
Williams is not under contract. He does not have one of the 15 spots.