Andrew Bogut on why he walked away from his Melbourne United contract at the final hurdle to join the Sydney Kings in 2018

Ahead of the Boxing Day clash between the Kings and Melbourne United, Andrew Bogut reveals how Sydney stepped up to sign him and helped stoke a massive modern-day rivalry.

I’ll never forget the day when I’d agreed to join Melbourne United before they went against their word, prompting me to walk away.

I thought it was done and dusted.

I’d agreed on the terms of the deal and had shaken hands with United.

I was looking forward to starting the next phase of my career with United after leaving the NBA.

I was infamously in the process of building a home in Melbourne and was ready for a new life with my family, but things changed at the drop of a dime.

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Andrew Bogut and Chris Goulding add another chapter to the Kings v United rivalry.

Basically, the whole deal with United boiled down to the NBL/clubs owning the full marketing rights of the players.

A player can’t just get an apparel sponsorship and go and promote it. Or a deal with a restaurant chain. They have to get it approved by the league.

If your sponsor conflicts with a league sponsor, nine times out of ten they are going to say no to the deal.

I came into those negotiations saying, with all due respect, my brand is as big if not bigger than the NBL’s alone.

That is something that might sound arrogant, but it is what it is. You only have to look at social media accounts as a small barometer as an example.

I told them that I’ve got a substantial holding of marketing that I do, and I factored in doing that kind of stuff while I was in Australia alongside how much I wanted to be paid to play.

The NBL and United said I couldn’t chase other sponsorships. The big one was Hungry Jacks. They said, ‘what if you get McDonalds and Hungry Jacks is our league sponsor’.

They were probably rubbing their hands together thinking: ‘the amount of sponsorships I can get at United using Andrews name and likeness will be fantastic”.

I didn’t think that was fair, but I was willing to open discuss and negotiate.

I met with them and everything else was done contract wise.

Andrew Bogut and Steph Curry were part of a great Golden State Warriors era.

I was happy to carve out two categories that you can protect completely – meaning fast food via Hungry Jacks and the other one was a car sponsorship.

So, I couldn’t get a rival fast food or go into the car market.

The third category, United had a right of refusal on a sponsor. So, let’s say it was food delivery. United are sponsored by DoorDash and Uber Eats comes to me and says they want me for $100,000 a year.

The NBL would chat to DoorDash and have as small time frame to match the offer and if they match, I’d go with DoorDash. If DoorDash or the NBL didn’t want to match, I was free to go with Uber Eats.

That was the agreement.

After much daily back and further, United and I met for final time at a restaurant in Mordialloc, and we had that same conversation and agreed to that with a handshake in person.

I thought thank god this negotiation is over because it was a bit longwinded. We were both smiling and happy.

That was a Friday night, and I received the contract on the Saturday morning, and it pretty much had all their categories protected.

They cheekily worded the agreement saying any sponsor worth over $20,000 for the NBL or United, is a category you can’t compete with.

You do the math: There are not many sponsorships worth under $20,000.

It is pretty laughable.

Bogut’s arrival in the Harbour City certainly added to the King-United rivalry.

I said humour me: ‘How many of your sponsorships are worth under $20,000 and they said, ‘not many’.

Did they think I would not read the contract? Honestly, I was almost insulted at the attempt. I was born and raised in a part of town where people tried to pull one over you daily!

Anyhow, that went against what we’d agreed the day before and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

At that point, I didn’t even go back with a counteroffer. I just let the contract offer sit there without reply.

That’s when I reached out to Jeff Van Groningen, who was the general manager at the Sydney Kings.

I’d known Jeff for years and he had expressed interest in me for some time.

I called him and said this is the deal that I want, yes or no. I told them that I could also go back to the NBA on a veteran minimum deal as a last resort.

Sydney also offered me the option of potential ownership, like United had, but there was nothing extra the Kings enticed me with other than removing the silliness around protecting sponsors. They understood I was also a brand, much like the NBL was.

Jeff flew to Melbourne on the Sunday morning, and we agreed on the deal in principal that night.

We then spent the next week, daily, going over the contract and I think we announced the deal that following Sunday night.

Andrew Bogut then became a King. Picture: Jonathan Ng

I truly believe that United didn’t think I had a backup plan and that I was just going to roll over because I wanted to be in Melbourne so badly as I was building a home.

They tried to use that as leverage and I’m the wrong person to try and do that with. I’m a man of my word and when you shake my hand and I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. I only expect the same in return.

To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about a backup because I thought, surely United aren’t going to balls this up. I mean, one of the biggest names in Australian basketball coming home with still a little bit of legs left.

Sydney would be always the next logical choice as the biggest market, but it wasn’t something I’d entertained until I’d had enough of the talks with United.

As a result, I didn’t talk to them again and I went completely quiet.

I remember United reached out midweek to see how I was progressing with the deal, and I said, ‘yep, still looking over it’, but I was already done at that point and formalising the contract with Sydney.

United found out about the Kings deal the following Sunday night when I posted something about the Harbour Bridge.

I think Larry Kestelman was disappointed because he was still heavily involved with United at the time.

The Kings didn’t publicly announce my contract for a few days because we were still waiting for the green light from the NBL.

The league were dragging their feet and they probably weren’t as supportive of the deal as you would think they should have been.

Sydney face Melbourne United as their rivalry resumes. Picture: Brett Costello

It got to the point where we said, we are going to do a press conference regardless, so if you want to turn the deal down you better let us know because we are going to go public with it.

Thankfully, Larry and the NBL came to the realisation that my deal was a great moment for the league. I could be wrong, but I believe it was the only press conference signing in NBL history that went live on numerous Australian TV channels nationwide.

My broken down deal with Melbourne has definitely added to the Kings versus United rivalry for me and the fans.

I think joining Sydney, who weren’t very good and had been the whipping boys, added to the rivalry for me.

The Kings play in a big market like United, but we didn’t feel like we had the same support from the league.

Sydney and Melbourne will go at it again on Boxing Day on Sunday and I can’t wait to see the Kings’ response after losing to United by a record 42 points last round.

People might call me crazy, but I actually think that loss is good for our group, in terms of finding ourselves and showing everybody what we are made of.

We responded with a big win over the in-form Phoenix last weekend, now the challenge is doing it against United at home.

One thing is for sure, I’ll be watching with great interest.