Los Angeles Lakers to Sign Jordan Farmar

After agreeing to a buyout from his Turkish Basketball League club, Anadolu Efes, Jordan Farmar will re-join the Los Angeles Lakers on a one-year, veteran minimum deal worth about $1 million. Per ESPN: “L.A. must first negotiate a buyout with Farmar’s club in Turkey, Anadolu Efes, which is believed to be in the $500,000 range. The buyout does not count against the salary cap, an important detail to the luxury tax-laden Lakers. The deal required a significant financial sacrifice by Farmar to be completed. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard signed a three-year, $10.5 million deal last summer to play in the Turkish Basketball League. ‘They knew about my deal overseas and really didn’t push it earlier because they didn’t think I’d be willing to give up that guaranteed money I had over there,’ Farmar said. ‘I wanted to be back in the NBA, but more importantly, back with the Lakers. This is the only situation I would have taken a minimum deal with.’ Farmar, 26, grew up in L.A. and played his first four professional seasons with the Lakers after being drafted in the first round out of UCLA in 2006. He was a key reserve on the Lakers’ championship teams in 2008-09 and 2009-10. ‘I’ve been a Laker since I was born,’ Farmar said. ‘I grew up a Laker fan, so regardless of where I am or who I’m playing for, or what I’m doing in life, I’m always going to stay connected to what’s going on here [in Los Angeles].’ After leaving L.A. as a free agent in 2010, he spent parts of two seasons with the New Jersey Nets, scoring a career-high 10.4 points per game on a career-best 44 percent 3-point shooting in 2011-12. Farmar was traded to the Atlanta Hawks in the Joe Johnson deal after that season, but had his contract bought out and played last season with Anadolu Efes, averaging 13.8 points and 3.9 assists in 29 games played. Farmar also played seven games for Israel’s Maccabi Electra of the EuroLeague during the NBA lockout in the summer of 2011. ‘The plan for me was to get back to the NBA eventually regardless,’ Farmar said. ‘I really, really enjoyed my time in Israel. I thought it was a possibility that it would be exactly the same [in Turkey] and I would hop on over there and never look back and I would make good money overseas, but just being over there and staying up until 2, 3, 4 in the morning and watching every NBA game, or watching the Lakers go through what they were going through was just tough. I missed my family, I missed being home and, ultimately, I missed being a Laker.'”