Remember When Michael Jordan Made This $120 Million Mistake?

In 2016, Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Hornets gave Nicolas Batum a $120 million contract. Batum is now on the Los Angeles Clippers after being waived by the Hornets in 2020.

The NBA season is 47 days away from September 1, so there is still plenty of time to reflect on past seasons before the new one picks up. 

Free agency is always fun to look back on, because some teams make incredible deals, while others lock themselves into contracts that hinder their franchise for years to come. 

In the summer of 2016, NBA teams had a lot more money to spend based on the cap increase around the league. 

Therefore, teams splurged their extra cash on a lot of players that were not worth the kinds of contracts that they were getting. 

One of those players was Nicolas Batum. 

Portland is finalizing a trade to send Nic Batum to Charlotte for Noah Vonleh and Gerald Henderson, league sources tell Yahoo.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 24, 2015

Before the 2015-16 season, Batum was traded from the Portland Trail Blazers to the Charlotte Hornets, and with the Hornets he averaged a very solid 14.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. 

Following the season, the Hornets re-signed him (27-years-old at the time) to a five-year, $120 million deal, which turned out to not be a very smart decision. 

Nicolas Batum agrees to a 5-year, $120 million deal to re-sign with Hornets. (First reported by @TheVertical) pic.twitter.com/o1uifgATCH

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 1, 2016

When they made the deal, he was a really good player who was entering his prime. 

After the contract, he played four more seasons for the Hornets. 

During the 2017 season he was still a very productive player, and averaged 15.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game. 

However, the following three seasons his points per game went down dramatically each year.

In 2020, he only averaged 3.6 points per game, and the team waived him before the start of the 2020-21 season.

OFFICIAL: We have waived forward Nicolas Batum.

🔗: https://t.co/cWWTEoDKDY pic.twitter.com/1FKtNqQURO

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) November 29, 2020

The Hornets are still paying him nearly $9 million per season even though he is now on the Los Angeles Clippers. 

The $9M Nicolas Batum dead cap hit in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, is the largest per year amount since the stretch provision was introduced in 2011.

Batum becomes the 43rd player that has been waived and stretched.

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) November 29, 2020

At the end of next season, they will finally be off the hook from paying him.