One more than one occasion this year, things about which to feel good have appeared to be in scant supply. Lysol Wipes have seemed easier to find. Maybe, just maybe, we have not been looking hard enough.
As a sports fan who has not watched an NBA game from beginning to end since Magic's Lakers and Bird's Celtics fought tooth and nail in the NBA Finals in the 1980's, I was wholly unaware of Anthony Carter, Bill Duffy, and their longstanding client-agent relationship, which continues through present day. Since I knew not who either man was, I was equally unenlightened about the one, unique aspect of their relationship, which 99 times out of 100 would have ended it but because of the depth and breadth of character these two men each possesses apparently ratified it and, perhaps, strengthened it.
Once upon a lifetime ago, Anthony Carter was a bench player in the NBA. He played in the NBA for thirteen seasons, four of which he spent as a reserve for the Miami Heat. Bill Duffy was his agent. The contract under which Anthony Carter played the 2002-03 season held a $4.1 million player option. That season, Carter, twenty-seven, appeared in forty-nine games for the Heat, shooting less than 36% and averaging less than five points per game. Not surprisingly, Carter wanted to exercise his player option and wanted the Heat to pay him $4.1 million for the 2003-04 season. He directed Duffy to inform the Heat on or before the June 30, 2003 deadline.
Duffy forgot to do so. His mistake cost Anthony Carter a substantial amount of money and made him an accidental free agent. The best deal he could find? A one-year contract with the San Antonio Spurs for the NBA minimum, which was then apparently in the neighborhood of $750,000. Duffy did not run from his error. He told Carter what he had done. He agreed to make it right. He agreed to pay him back the $3 million his mistake had cost him. Carter accepted his terms. He did not accuse him of any criminal wrongdoing. He did not sue him. Hell, he did not even fire him.
Duffy paid Carter back the money his mistake had cost him. Every dime of it. The two men agreed to a repayment schedule over a term of years and here, in 2020, Bill Duffy made his final payment to Anthony Carter.
The best part of this story, to me anyway, is not Duffy's ownership of his error or Carter's willingness to accept Duffy's apology for what he had done and Duffy's plan for making him whole. To me, the best part of this story is that this single error does not represent the sum and substance of the relationship these two men have had since Duffy became Carter's agent in 1998, and continue to have to this day. At one point or another in their almost three-decade-long relationship, each has leaned on the other for support and one has needed the other, the call for help has been answered.
Anthony Carter's final season in the NBA was 2011-12. Since retirement, he has gotten into coaching, initially in the NBA's Developmental League and, since 2016, for the Miami Heat. He currently is the Heat's Player Development Coach. Who does he trust, to this day, to review a contract before he signs it? Bill Duffy.
Two remarkable men. One remarkable story.
-AK
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