Luke Ridnour traded record four times in one week

By Steve Guntli

Luke Ridnour, NBA player and Blaine High School graduate, endured a pretty crazy week. The veteran point guard was traded to four teams in seven days.

The shuffle began on the morning of June 24. The Orlando Magic opted to trade Ridnour to the Memphis Grizzlies for Janis Timma, a 2013 second-round draft pick. At around 9:45 a.m. on June 25, Ridnour was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for player Matt Barnes. Less than three hours later, Ridnour was sent to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Jeremy Lamb and a draft pick.

On June 30, Ridnour was traded once again, this time to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Croatian power forward Tomislav Zubcic.

The unusual trade situation made Ridnour a trending item on Facebook and Twitter.

Ridnour has now been a member of eight separate teams in his 12-year NBA career: the Seattle Supersonics, the Milwaukee Bucks (twice), the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Charlotte Bobcats, the Magic, the Charlotte Hornets, the Thunder and the Raptors. Fittingly, the Thunder were once the Supersonics, until the team moved to Oklahoma in 2008.

Ridnour has a $2.75 million non-guaranteed contract, which makes him an ideal bargaining tool for managers to keep their teams under the salary cap. For this reason, analysts believe Ridnour may be traded again before the offseason is through.

Ridnour is approaching the record for most offseason trades. In 2014, Alonzo Gee, currently a shooting guard for the Portland Trail Blazers, was traded to seven teams in eight months. Ridnour has already surpassed Quentin Richardson’s record for fastest offseason trades: Richardson was traded three times in four weeks in 2009.

Ridnour will be in Blaine July 29–31 for the Luke Ridnour Basketball Camp. For more information, visit lukeridnour13.com.