Sports
Fifty years ago, the Sabres drafted a player who didn't exist: The legend of Taro Tsujimoto
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story stated all members of the Sabres front office at the time are deceased. Former coach Floyd Smith is still alive. We regret the error.
Josh Tsujimoto usually wears a No. 74 Sabres jersey sporting his last name if he attends a Buffalo home game at KeyBank Center.
It was a gift from his father, Paul, a few years ago and meant to serve as a tangible souvenir of a family legend that spans five decades. But there are nights when Josh isn’t the only one wearing a No. 74 sweater at a Sabres game. From time to time, you’ll see the odd Tsujimoto jersey sprinkled amongst the crowd in Buffalo.
“You go to a Sabres game and you’re bound to see a couple of Taro jerseys,” says John Boutet, chairman of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. “Some people have the correct number, which is 13. He was given 13. Some people have 74 because that’s the year it was.”
The jersey is a cult classic because the legend of Taro Tsujimoto isn’t just a family story shared by the father and son.
Instead, it’s an inside joke that has been kept alive by Sabres fans for 50 years.
“Some people recognize it,” Josh says when asked about his jersey. “A lot of out-of-town people will come to a game and they don’t know the backstory. So I’ll tell them, ‘He’s not real. But he’s got a Wikipedia page.’”
Taro Tsujimoto was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the 11th round of the 1974 draft.
The team’s official media guide still lists Tsujimoto alongside the other draft picks from 1974. He’s noted as the 183rd overall selection in the draft, a centerman taken from the Tokyo Katanas.
But the NHL’s official guide and record book does not recognize Tsujimoto. His name has been stricken from historical draft records for a very simple reason: Taro Tsujimoto never existed.
The 1974 NHL draft was unlike any other in league history.
The NHL was in the midst of trying to fend off the rival World Hockey Association, which had already poached several of their notable stars. NHL officials were wary that WHA teams would use the results of their draft to try to lure players to their league. So the NHL hatched a unique plan: They would hold the 1974 draft completely veiled in secrecy.
Over a three-day window — starting on May 28, 1974 — teams would select players via a private telephone call, with the 18 general managers phoning in to NHL president Clarence Campbell at the league headquarters in Montreal to record their pick.
Each team had no clue what other clubs were doing, forcing Campbell to re-read the selections each time a team was drafting a player. The first day alone took eight hours, and the draft was scheduled to go as many rounds as general managers chose to draft.
The process became so meticulous and tedious that several teams started skipping picks altogether.
The Kansas City Scouts — despite being a brand new expansion team — opted to skip their eighth-round selection.
The California Golden Seals punted on their ninth-round pick.
Josh Tsujimoto wears his No. 74 Tsujimoto jersey whenever he attends Sabres home games at KeyBank Center. (Photo courtesy of Josh Tsujimoto)
Both Vancouver and Detroit passed on choosing a player in the 10th round.
But the Buffalo Sabres didn’t want to just skip their pick in the 11th round. Instead, they wanted to send a message to league officials that the draft process was needlessly drawn out and exhausting.
The Sabres had four people handling the draft: General manager Punch Imlach, coach Floyd Smith, scouting director John Andersen and public relations director Paul Wieland. Wieland explained in his 2019 book, “Taro Lives! Confessions of the Sabres Hoaxer” that he was there to gather information on the players drafted but he also had eyes on getting into hockey management. Imlach wanted to help him get there.
Imlach walked into the Sabres’ draft suite on the second day of the draft already fed up with the process. As Wieland recalled in his book, Imlach said, “What the hell can we do to piss off Campbell?”
Andersen suggested drafting a player nobody knew about so teams had to comb through their lists to find him. Then Wieland jumped in and said, “We should draft someone who doesn’t even exist … just make up a name from some place that no one would expect. Like Japan for example.”
Imlach thought about it and said, “Japanese? What the hell. Why not?”
In the spring of 1974, Paul Tsujimoto was a 21-year-old college student back in his family home in Elma, N.Y.
He distinctly recalls being called downstairs from his bedroom for dinner one night when his father relayed the story of a mysterious phone call he had received earlier in the day.
“He said someone with the Buffalo Sabres called him on the phone and asked him a couple of questions,” says Paul. “They wanted to know a common name for a boy in Japan. And they wanted to know what the Japanese word for a sabre was.”
Paul’s father — Joshua Tsujimoto — answered the questions.
He told the caller that Taro was a common name for a boy in Japan. And that the Japanese equivalent of a sabre was called a katana.
The idea to phone the Tsujimoto household was the brainchild of Wieland. When traveling back and forth as a college student, Wieland would drive by Tsujimoto Garden and Gifts, the family’s general store. That’s how he came up with the fictitious last name for the draft pick.
Wieland used the answers from Joshua to help fill out an elaborate backstory that included fake stats in a press release. According to the Sabres, Tsujimoto had a modest 15 goals and 10 assists for the Tokyo Katanas in his draft year.
The Tsujimotos and the four people in the Sabres’ draft room were the only ones aware of the gag.
“We had no idea what they were doing until we found out about the draft a couple of days later,” says Paul. “Then we said, ‘Ahhh. That’s why they called.’”
Wieland and Imlach decided to see how far they could take it. When the team went to training camp in St. Catherines, Wieland roped in team trainer Rip Simonick, who built a locker stall complete with equipment and a Tsujimoto jersey with No. 13 on the back.
Danny Gare, the Sabres’ second-round pick in the 1974 draft, remembers being at rookie camp and everyone wondering who Tsujimoto was and when he might show up. The closer the Sabres got to main camp, the more the intrigue intensified.
“They were making cuts and getting ready for main camp and we hadn’t seen him,” Gare says. “There were a lot of discussion like, ‘Where is this guy?’ There were rumors he had trouble getting his immigration papers and all of that. It was a good prank, man. It was quite a thing.”
Even the owners, Seymour and Northrup Knox, weren’t in on the joke. They were asking Imlach and Wieland every day at training camp if Tsujimoto had arrived. Wieland explained in his book that Imlach would just say he “wasn’t sure if the kid would make it this year, but remember we have his rights in case he decides to turn pro in the future.”
“You had to think this guy was real,” Boutet says. “Who would go through that length to play a practical joke? Well, I guess Paul would.”
It probably helped that the Sabres had a strong draft that year. Gare and Lee Fogolin, the team’s top two picks, played more than 800 NHL games. Gare once led the NHL in goals. Even Derek Smith, taken one round before the Sabres drafted Tsujimoto, ended up playing 335 games and collecting 194 points.
“I remember later playing on a line with Derek Smith and Tony McKegney,” Gare says. “We had a great line. I scored 56 the one year and we were going out afterward to celebrate the season. Derek Smith said to me, ‘Yeah, Tickets, you’ll be remembered for leading the league in goals. I’ll be remembered for being the draft pick before Taro Tsujimoto.’”
The whole Sabres organization ended up becoming quite fond of Wieland’s pranks. Each April 1, Wieland would come up with a fake story to send out in a press release. One year, he typed an entire release to announce that the Sabres would be switching to plastic ice in their arena. A local television news reporter fell for the story and ran it on air. He didn’t talk to Wieland for years after the fact.
Gare still laughs at that one, because he’s now a partner at Can-Ice, a synthetic ice company in Canada. Wieland was ahead of his time without even realizing it.
“He had a likable spirit about him,” Gare says. “He always had a comedic side talking to him.”
“Paul Wieland was such a character. I got to know him a bit over the years. A completely creative, zany guy who was so colorful,” adds Paul. “And he always had some out-of-the-box ideas.”
Wieland’s pranks were only part of his charm. He was innovative on the team’s broadcast, came up with the team’s mascot, Sabretooth, who is still around today and is the reason the Sabres sing the Canadian and United States National anthems before games. His impact on the franchise was enough for Boutet to push for Wieland’s induction into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame this fall.
The NHL wasn’t as enamored with Wieland’s jokes. Then-NHL president Clarence Campbell fell for the plastic ice joke when, according to Wieland’s book, he was quoted by the Canadian Press supporting the Sabres’ attempt to keep the league on the cutting edge of technology. So it’s no surprise Campbell didn’t have a lot of patience for the Taro Tsujimoto joke once the league caught wind of it. The Tsujimoto pick was eventually removed from the official record and the pick entry is now just invalid.
But that didn’t stop the legend from living on in Buffalo. There were bumper stickers and trading cards. Some fans would show up to The Buffalo Memorial Auditorium with big signs that said, “Taro says …” with different endings for each game.
“I used to read them all the time because they were clever,” Gare says.
Wieland used to say that his quirky jokes were a way to put a small market team on the map and show off the city and franchise’s sense of humor. In a bigger market like Toronto, New York or Montreal, Boutet doesn’t think something like the Tsujimoto prank would have taken off in the same way.
“Buffalo people are different,” Boutet says. “We get it. We’re OK to laugh at each other. This was the perfect town to do it in.”
Paul Tsujimoto says he first told his son Josh — who is named after his grandfather — about the legend of Taro when he was about 8 years old.
“It was an inside joke with the family for as long as I can remember,” says Josh. “I remember my dad bringing it up when I was little. I didn’t realize how many people knew about this until I got older.”
Paul owns one Taro Tsujimoto rookie card that was gifted to him by a former employer who was able to track one down.
The legend of Taro Tsujimoto isn’t just a family story shared by the Tsujimoto family. It’s an inside joke that has been kept alive by Sabres fans for 50 years. (Photo courtesy of Josh Tsujimoto)
In 2011, the Panini trading card company decided to print a small run of Taro Tsujimoto rookie cards as part of their 2010-11 rookie set. The card lists Tsujimoto’s alleged birthdate — March 15, 1953 — and posts his height (5 feet 9) and weight (165 pounds).
The back of the card featured a short biography that leaned into Tsujimoto’s curious backstory:
“In Buffalo, it’s not Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? It’s Where Have You Been, Taro Tsujimoto? The first Japanese player ever selected in the NHL Draft, the Sabres tabbed the mysterious prospect in the 11th round back in 1974. The Canadiens, who had hoped to steal him later in the draft, were rumored to have worked out a deal for the diminutive center that would have sent Jacques Lemaire to Buffalo. Instead, the Sabres held on to his rights and continue to anticipate his arrival. To this day, whispers of his exploits with the Tokyo Katanas stir up the fans at the HSBC Arena, where the faithful often are heard to chant ‘We Want Taro!’”
Panini received the approval of both the NHL and NHL Players’ Association to produce that Tsujimoto card. An NHLPA staffer even assisted Panini in tracking down an era-appropriate photo to use on the front of the card. But as for the identity of the man posing as Taro Tsujimoto on that trading card, nobody seems to know exactly who it is.
“I have no idea who that guy is on the card,” says Paul with a laugh.
One Tsujimoto card was placed in every 20 boxes of that run, making it an elusive card to obtain. The rarity of that card is the perfect reflection of the mystery around Taro Tsujimoto that has endured for 50 years. And it was all courtesy of the creative mind of Wieland.
“He created a folk hero is what he did,” says Gare. “It’s crazy that it still has legs 50 years later.”
“It’s pretty neat. As time goes on, the younger fans don’t know about it, but the story persists,” adds Josh. “And I like that the story continues on. It’s a fun way to remember my grandpa and Mr. Wieland.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photo: Derek Cain / Getty Images)
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Ali Haji-Sheikh and Shar Pourdanesh share the fact they are retired NFL players living beyond the glow of the NFL spotlight. But they also share another distinction tying them to current events: They are part of the Iranian diaspora hoping for the downfall of the Islamic revolution.
They make up part of a small group of men who played in the NFL – along with David Bakhtiari, his brother Eric Bakhtiari and T.J. Housmandzadeh – who are decedents of Iranians.
Washington Redskins kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) talks to reporters at Jack Murphy Stadium during media day prior to Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos. San Diego, California, on Jan. 26, 1988.(Darr Beiser/USA TODAY Sports)
Haji-Sheikh: Self-Determination For Iranians
Haji-Sheikh, 65, played in the 1980s for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. He was a first-team All-Pro, made the Pro Bowl and was on the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 for the Giants and, in his final season, won a Super Bowl XXII ring playing for the Washington Redskins and kicking six extra points in a 42-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.
Now, Haji-Sheikh is the general manager at a Michigan Porsche-Audi dealership and is like the rest of us: Keeping up with world events when time permits.
Except the war the United States is currently waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran is kind of different because Haji-Sheikh’s dad emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s and built a life here.
And his son would like to see freedom come to a country he’s never visited but has a kinship to.
“It’s a world event,” Haji-Sheikh said on Monday. “I am not a big fan of the Islamic revolution because I am not Islamic. I would like to see the people of Iran be able to determine their own future rather than it be determined by a few people. It would be nice to see them having a stable government where the people can actually decide how they want it to go.
Green Bay Packers kicker Al Del Greco (10) talks with New York Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) on Sept. 15, 1985, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers defeated the Giants 23-20.
Iranians Celebrating And Americans Protesting
Haji-Sheikh hasn’t taken to the streets of his native Michigan to celebrate a liberation that hasn’t fully manifested mere days after the American and Israeli bombing and elimination of the Ayatollah.
“I’m so far removed from that,” Haji-Sheikh said. “My mom is from Michigan and of Eastern European background. My dad is from Iran. But it’s like, he hasn’t been back since I was in eighth grade, so that’s a long time ago. That was when the Shah was still in power, mid-70s, ‘74 or ’75, because if he ever went back after that he never would have left. They would have held him, so there was no intention of going back.
“But if things change he might want to go, you never know.”
Despite being removed from any activism about what is happening in Iran Haji-Sheikh is an astute observer.
“My favorite thing I’m seeing right now on TV is the Iranians in America celebrating because there’s a chance, a glimpse, maybe a hope for freedom,” Haji-Sheikh said. “And you have these people in New York protesting. What are you protesting?”
Pourdanesh Thanks America, Israel
Pourdanesh retired from the NFL in 2000 after a seven-year career with the Redskins and Steelers. The six-foot-six and 312-pound offensive tackle was born in Tehran. He proudly tells people he was the NFL’s first Iranian-born player.
Pourdanesh is much more visible and open about his feelings about his country than others. And, bottom line, he loves that President Donald Trump is bombing the Islamic regime.
“This is a great day for all Iranians across the world,” Pourdanesh posted on his Instagram account on Saturday when the war began. “Thank you, President Trump, thank you to the nation of Israel. Thank you for everybody that has been standing up for my people, my brothers and sisters in Iran across the world. This is a great day.
“The infamous dictator is dead – the one person who has contributed to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other people around the world, if not more. So, congratulations to my Iranian brothers and sisters. Now, go and take back the country.”
This message was not a one-off. Pourdanesh has been posting about what has been happening in Iran since January, when people in Iran took to the streets demanding liberty and the government’s thugs began killing them, with some estimates rising to 36,500 deaths.
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh (68) of the Pittsburgh Steelers blocks against defensive lineman Jevon Kearse (90) of the Tennessee Titans during a game at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 24, 2000, in Pittsburgh. The Titans defeated the Steelers 23-20. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
‘Islam Does Not Represent The Iranian People’
“[The] Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people,” Pourdanesh said in another post. “Islam does not represent the Iranian people. For almost 50 years, the Iranian people and our country of Iran has been taken hostage by a terrorist regime, and it’s time to take that regime down.”
Pourdanesh was not available for comment on Monday. I did speak to a handful of other Iranian-Americans on Monday. They didn’t play in the NFL, but their opinions are no less valuable than those of former NFL players.
And these people, some of them participating in rallies on behalf of a free Iran, do not understand the thinking of some Americans and mainstream media.
One complained that media that reports on reparations for black Americans based on slavery in the 1800s dismisses the Islamic takeover of the American Embassy in 1979 as an old grievance.
Another said his brother lives in England, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately called the American and Israeli attacks on the Ayatollah’s regime “illegal” but, as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service took years to do the same of Muslim rape (grooming) gangs in the country.
(Starmer announced a national “statutory inquiry” in June 2025).
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh of the Washington Redskins looks on from the sideline during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 7, 1997, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers defeated the Redskins 14-13. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
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Pourdanesh Calls Out NFL Silence
And finally, Pourdanesh put the NFL on blast. He said in yet another post that during his career, the NFL asked him to honor black history, asked him to stand for women’s rights, asked him to fight for equality for those who cannot defend themselves.
“I did everything they asked, and now I ask the NFL this: Where are you now? Why haven’t we heard a single word out of the NFL? NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the NFL teams out there, all the players who say they stand for social justice, where are you now?
“Why haven’t we heard a single word out of you with regard to the people who have been killed as of today? The very values you claim to espouse are being trampled right now. Why haven’t we heard a single word?”
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The day after he saved the Dodgers’ season, Will Klein was hungry. He ordered from Mod Pizza.
He drove over to pick up his order. The guy that handed him the pizza told him he looked just like Will Klein.
“You should just look at the name on the order,” Klein told him.
Chaos ensued.
“He actually started screaming,” Klein said. “He just started flipping out, which was funny.”
Thing is, if it were two days earlier, the guy would have had no idea what Klein looked like. Neither would you.
On Oct. 26, Klein was the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen, a wild thing on his fourth organization in two years, a last-minute addition to the World Series roster.
On Oct. 27, the Dodgers played 18 innings, and the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen delivered the game of his life: four shutout innings, holding the Toronto Blue Jays at bay until Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run.
Dodgers pitcher Will Klein celebrates during the 16th inning of Game 3 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 27.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
When Klein returned to the clubhouse, Sandy Koufax walked over to shake hands and congratulate him.
That was Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers, the significantly older team, slogged through the next two games, batting .164 and losing both.
If not for Klein, that would have been the end. The Blue Jays would have won the series in five games, and there would have been no Kiké Hernández launching a game-ending double play on the run in Game 6, no Miguel Rojas tying home run and game-saving throw in Game 7, no Andy Pages game-saving catch and Will Smith winning home run in Game 7, no Yoshinobu Yamamoto winning Game 6 as a starter and Game 7 as a reliever.
There would have been no parade.
When Klein rescued the Dodgers, he had pitched one inning in the previous 30 days.
“You can never take your mind out of it,” he said. “You’ve got to stay prepared. Something might come up, and you don’t want to be the guy that gets thrown in the fire and just burns.”
The Dodgers are not shy about grabbing a minor league pitcher, telling him what he can do better and what he should stop doing, and seeing what sticks. If nothing sticks, the Dodgers are also not shy about spitting out the pitcher and designating him for assignment.
In his minor league career, Klein struck out 13 batters every nine innings, which is tremendous. He walked seven batters every nine innings, which is hideous.
The Dodgers scrapped his slider, mixed in a sweeper, and told him his arm was so good that he should stop trying to make perfect pitches and just let fly.
“A lot of times, pitchers are guilty of giving hitters too much credit, and hitters are guilty of giving pitchers too much credit,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.
“Part of our job is to show them information that helps instill some confidence. I think that really landed with Will.”
In his four September appearances with the Dodgers — after a minor-league stint to apply the team’s advice — he faced 17 batters, walked one, and did not give up a run. That’s why he isn’t buying the suggestion that something suddenly clicked in the World Series.
“Things were incrementally getting better,” he said, “and then you add that to the atmosphere. It amplifies it to 100. All the prep work and mental stuff that I had been doing, I finally got a chance to shine.”
Said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “He’s done it in the highest of leverage. You can’t manufacture that. You’ve got to live it and do it. So, since he’s done it, I think he’s got a real confidence.”
Dodgers pitcher Will Klein speaks during DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.
(John McCoy / Getty Images)
Klein last started a game three years ago, at triple A. After making 72 pitches in those four innings of Game 3, did he entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe, he was meant to be a starter after all?
“No,” he said abruptly. “I hate waiting four or five days to pitch and knowing exactly when I’m going to pitch.
“When I did, the anxiety just built. I want to go pitch. I hate sitting there and waiting. That kind of eats at you. I like being able to go out to the bullpen and have a chance to pitch every day.”
The Dodgers are so deep that Klein might not make the team out of spring training. Whatever happens, he’ll always have Game 3.
In the wake of that game, a fan wanted to buy a Klein jersey but could not find one. So the fan made one himself before Game 4, using white electrical tape on the back of a Dodger blue jersey. I showed Klein a picture.
“That’s cool,” Klein said. “That’s pretty funny.”
Dave Wong, a Dodgers fan living in San Francisco Giants territory, also wanted to buy a Klein jersey.
“They didn’t have a jersey for him,” Wong said.
He settled for the Dodger blue T-shirt he found online and wore it to last Friday’s Cactus League game against the Giants, with these words in white letters: “Will Klein Appreciation Shirt.”
This, then, would be a Will Klein Appreciation Column.
Sports
NBA player calls for Hawks to cancel their ‘Magic City’ strip club promotional night out of respect for women
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An NBA player has taken exception to an Atlanta Hawks promotional night, which is a nod to a famed strip club in the city.
The Hawks have “Magic City Night” scheduled for March 16 against the Orlando Magic, but a player for neither team isn’t too fond of paying tribute to a strip club, which has been famed for its late-night stories involving athletes, celebrities and more.
While the Hawks call it an ode to a “cultural institution,” San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet shared his displeasure in a letter posted on Medium.
Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs reaches for the ball during the third quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on Feb. 26, 2026 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Ishika Samant/Getty Images)
Kornet, a nine-year veteran and 2024 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, called for the Hawks’ promotional night to be canceled later this month, saying that it is disrespectful to women to honor the strip club.
“In its press release, the Hawks failed to acknowledge that this place is, as the business itself boasts, “Atlanta’s premier strip club.” Given this fact, I would like to respectfully ask that the Atlanta Hawks cancel this promotional night with Magic City,” Kornet wrote in his post.
“The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world. We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.”
The Hawks boasted about the theme night in its press release, including a live performance by famous Atlanta rapper T.I., a co-branded, limited-edition hoodie and even the establishment’s “World Famous” lemon-pepper chicken wings in the arena.
A general view of signage with the State Farm Arena logo on Nov. 14, 2025, outside State Farm Arena, in Atlanta, GA. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)
“This collaboration and theme night is very meaningful to me after all the work that we did to put together ’Magic City: An American Fantasy’,” said Hawks principal owner, filmmaker and actor, Jami Gertz, said in a press release. “The iconic Atlanta institution has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”
Kornet wrote that allowing the night to continue “without protest would reflect poorly on us as an NBA community, “specifically in being complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society.”
Kornet wrote that “others throughout the league” were surprised by the Hawks’ decision to have this promotional night.
“We desire to provide an environment where fans of all ages can safely come and enjoy the game of basketball and where we can celebrate the history and culture of communities in good conscience. The celebration of a strip club is not conduct aligned with that vision,” he wrote.
Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs defends against the Charlotte Hornets during their game at Spectrum Center on Jan. 31, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
The Hawks have seen good reception for the promotional night, as Tick Pick reported a get-in price was initially $10 for the game and has since skyrocketed to $94.
Kornet is in his first season with the Spurs, his sixth NBA team, where he has played mainly in a bench role. He averages 7.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game across 50 contests.
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