The texts from NBA agents came in almost immediately.
“Did he really do that?”
“ What??!?”
“Wooow”
They were reacting to the news that ex-Knicks forward Guerschon Yabusele removed the 2026-27 player option from his contract. Yabusele was slated to earn $5.8 million in guaranteed money next season. He essentially removed that money from his deal to facilitate last week’s trade to Chicago.
It’s rare for a player in Yabusele’s situation to forgo guaranteed money. But if you ask Yabusele about it, he’ll tell you it was an easy decision.
“We can always see the side of the money and talk about it, but at the end of the day the passion is more than just the money. It’s being out there, missing the feeling of being out there, offense, defense. Just competing at a high level because I’m a competitor first,” Yabusele said in an interview with SNY. “… The situation with New York was a little bit different for me because I wasn’t really playing, so being able to be on another team and try to bring value on the court was really important. I was just missing being out there on the court, making mistakes, learning from it and trying to get better.”
Yabusele signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Knicks in the offseason – New York’s biggest signing of the summer. Once the season started, Yabusele was rarely on the floor. His strengths as a player did not seem to fit under new head coach Mike Brown (who was hired after Yabusele signed).
As the trade deadline approached, the Knicks were trying to find a new home for Yabusele. But it became clear that no team wanted to take on his $5.8 million player option for next season. The lack of interest was not a reflection of Yabusele’s ability; it’s mostly due to the ‘second apron’ era of the collective bargaining agreement, where every dollar in player salary is crucial for contending teams.
As such, the Knicks would have had to send draft capital to the team that traded for Yabusele.
But that all changed when Yabusele decided to change his contract. He and his agent, Richie Felder of CAA, worked with the Knicks to amend the deal and remove the player option.
Soon after, Chicago pounced and sent Dalen Terry to New York in a trade for Yabusele.
Sure, the amended contract was part of Chicago’s attraction to The Dancing Bear. But the Bulls also know Yabusele can help them on the court, something he wasn’t able to do in New York.
Yabusele so far has proven the Bulls right, averaging 12.5 points in 30 minutes over his first two games.
“I love it out there with the team, the guys. The coaches, they did a great job of welcoming me the best way they can,” Yabusele said. “Everybody’s telling me how happy they are for me to be out there on the team with them. It just makes it easy for me to have confidence and just feel good on the court.”
The trade also made it easy for New York to obtain Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado.
The Knicks didn’t have to use any of their *seven second-round picks in the Yabusele trade. In Terry, they acquired a player with no guaranteed money in 2026-27 (Terry is a restricted free agent this offseason).
New York flipped Terry and two second-round picks to New Orleans for Alvarado. The former Christ The King star made an immediate impact in his Knick debut, scoring 12 points while adding two steals on Sunday against Boston.
He will be greeted with a hero’s welcome at the Garden on Tuesday, his first home game as a Knick.
But he doesn’t make it to the Garden without Yabusele’s contract amendment.
“I mean the decision was, I wanna say pretty quick and easy,” Yabusele, a former first round pick of the Celtics who spent a few seasons overseas before returning to the NBA, said. “For me to be able to have that second chance at the NBA and come back here, I had to take [a] risk. So I would say it was nothing new to me… I was thinking about [amending my contract] and I thought that this was the best thing to do.”
With no player option for 2026-27, Yabusele will now be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He received interest from some overseas teams ahead of the trade deadline. He will probably get plenty of overseas interest this summer. A cynic would wonder if Yabusele already has a deal in place for next season.
Yabusele’s agent, Felder of CAA, declined comment when asked about an overseas deal for 2026-27.
Regardless of how things play out for Yabusele, his decision earlier this month opened the door for the Knicks to get Alvarado.
At some point on Tuesday night, Alvarado will stand up and walk to the scorer’s table. The Garden crowd will erupt. Alvarado, raised in Brooklyn, should get a long, loud ovation when he steps on the floor.
If you are one of the people screaming for Alvarado on Tuesday, don’t forget to thank Yabusele.
*The Knicks have two additional second-round picks if you include the 2026 first-round pick from Washington. That pick is top-8 protected and will almost surely turn into two second-round picks (2026, 2027). If you count the Washington picks, they have seven second-round picks left after the Alvarado trade.
