Kings trade Clark to Utah Jazz for future second-round draft pick
By Bee Sports Staff
Published 1:24 p.m. PDT Tuesday, August 5, 2003
The Sacramento Kings on Tuesday traded forward Keon Clark and two future second-round draft picks to the Utah Jazz for one future second-round pick, The Bee has learned.
The cost-cutting move will save the Kings approximately $5 million from the 2003-04 payroll. However, it leaves the Kings with only 10 players under contract for next season. The cost-cutting move will allow the Kings some cap room to go after free agent guard Jim Jackson.
Clark played just one season with the Kings after signing as a free-agent with the Kings last August. Clark started in 11 of the 80 games he played for Sacramento, averaging 6.7 points per game and 5.60 rebounds per game.
The highlight of his season may have come on Feb. 4 in Dallas where he made a spectacular one-handed dunk off a Hedo Turkoglu miss with 16.5 seconds left for a 110-109 win over the Mavericks. He scored 17 points and had eight rounds in the game.
Three weeks later at Arco Arena, Clark made a put-back after an air-ball by Mike Bibby with 0.4 seconds left to again beat the Mavericks 126-124.
Utah will be Clark's fourth team since entering the NBA as the 13th overall pick by Denver in the 1998 draft. He was traded to the Toronto Raptors after two and a half seasons with the Nuggets.
Blockbuster Free Agent Aquistion of the Year: 2002-03