Jazz sign Spurs' Brown to a 2-year offer sheet

Linda Hamilton Deseret Morning News

Devin Brown grew up in San Antonio, watching the Spurs' George Gervin, David Robinson, Vinny Del Negro and even Uwe Blab, and firmly ingrained in the Spurs' organization as his family had season tickets and his sister was a ball girl.

But Brown was born in Salt Lake City, and it's entirely possible that's where the Spurs' restricted free-agent guard will play for the next couple of years.

The Jazz are in need of a shooting guard after trading away Kirk Snyder and losing Raja Bell to free agency, and the 6-foot-5, 26- year-old Brown is Utah's hoped-for answer. An NBA-career 42 percent shooter, Brown averaged 53 percent 3-point shooting through 21 career playoff games (36 percent career regular-season 3-point shooting).

On Thursday, Brown signed a two-year offer sheet with the Utah Jazz, meaning the Spurs will have seven days -- from when they first received a copy of the offer sheet -- to match it.

The Spurs' media relations department said Friday it had not received official word of the offer sheet from Brown and that general manager R.C. Buford is on vacation. The Spurs were already busy Friday, holding an afternoon press conference to introduce Michael Finley as the newest member of their team.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporter Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News Friday after the press conference that he would meet with Buford this weekend, and they plan to make a quick decision and "don't want to drag it out." Popovich said they would likely announce their decision Monday morning.

Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor confirmed Brown's signing at midday Thursday but would not comment further as he left immediately afterward for vacation, saying Brown is not Utah property as of yet, so he wouldn't discuss him.

If the Spurs don't match -- and the guess is they wouldn't as they've just signed free agents Finley and Nick Van Exel and re- signed their own man, Shaun Marks, to give them the required minimum of 13 on the roster -- Brown going into his fourth NBA season would clear one hurdle on the way to becoming a Utah Jazzman.

The other, should the Spurs not match, would be a Jazz physical, which could be an issue as he had a herniated disk in his back that sidelined him the last month of the regular season and for all but six playoff games of the Spurs' championship run.

His agent, Darrick Powell, who did not answer or return Deseret Morning News phone calls, has told the San Antonio Express-News in the past that Brown's back is fine.

Brown told the Express-News earlier this summer that his season- ending physical with the Spurs showed the back has healed and that he's had no problems playing basketball and golf, his other love, since. He said at the time he'd be willing to take physicals or work out for teams that might be interested in him.

Brown first visited the Jazz on Aug. 9.

Financial terms of the Jazz offer were not disclosed. The Spurs had given Brown a qualifying offer of about $900,000 to retain the rights to sign him, but Powell has said," Devin will not play for $1 million. He's more than a $1 million player."

Utah had the $5 million "midlevel exception" money available this summer, and some of that went to point guard Milt Palacio, who was signed to a contract Thursday.

Brown, never drafted by an NBA team but picked up as a free agent by the Spurs in late September 2002, was born Dec. 30, 1978, in Salt Lake City and still has relatives here, but he spent most of his life in San Antonio, playing four sports at West Campus High School and moving on to University of Texas at San Antonio.

The Spurs waived him less than a month after signing him, then re- signed and re-waived him that season. Brown had a 10-day contract with the Denver Nuggets in April 2003 but was signed again by San Antonio in August 2003. He's been an all-star at the Jazz's Rocky Mountain Revue and other summer leagues and was 2003 NBDL MVP and rookie of the year for Fayetteville. He also was 2002 USBL rookie of the year with the Kansas City Cagerz.

E-mail: lham@desnews.com

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