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There were fewer storylines more confusing in this NBA season than Patrick McCaw’s decision to rebuff the Warriors’ two-year, $4 million offer after suffering a serious, at one point potentially career-threatening spine injury.
McCaw’s holdout went through the preseason, and it just continued to linger. Eventually, the Cleveland Cavaliers offered him a one-year, $3 million tender which the Warriors declined to match. He was waived three days later and signed by the Toronto Raptors. McCaw told ESPN’s Marc J. Spears that the decision was motivated by him being “a kid,” despite the decision being made within the last year.
“I could say it was playing time, but I think it was just me being emotional as a kid,” McCaw said in Spears’s piece on The Undefeated. “I just wanted more. Not necessarily more playing time, but more opportunity for myself. I’m not discrediting the Warriors and what they chose to do. I just think being a young kid, you see all the younger guys competing and doing their thing and you feel like, ‘OK, I’m just that kid, or I could be doing exactly what he’s doing.’”
According to Spears, McCaw’s decision was not only based on emotion, but it was in direct contradiction to his then-agents, Marlon Harrison and Bill Duffy of BDA Sports, who told McCaw to sign the offer. Apparently, McCaw went back and forth on the offer, and was at times very close to signing it. BDA sports and Harrison and Duffy no longer represent McCaw. In his words, it got to a point where he felt like he couldn’t return to the Warriors.
“I just felt like once it got past preseason, I was just adamant about not going back,” McCaw said. “I was just stuck right there. That’s when I was like, ‘I’m just not going.’ I made it this far and I missed preseason, I missed the season opener, I missed getting the rings. I’ve made it this far just based off of what I chose to do.”
McCaw said he’s not sure what sort of reaction he’ll receive when he returns to Oracle, but said playing the Warriors (if he gets the chance to) will be “crazy.” Despite the potential bad blood, Shaun Livingston expressed his support for McCaw to Spears.
“I wish he could’ve stayed another year, but a player has to do what’s best for him,” Livingston said. “I still got love for Pat.”