More NBA bucks for Real Madrid

Guerschon Yabusele is leaving Real Madrid. The French power forward, now 28, is making a return to the NBA, where he left with a bruised reputation in 2019. Drafted 16th overall three years prior, he struggled to find his footing with the Boston Celtics. His next move was a familiar one: reset and rebuild your career outside the United States... and see what happens.

In his case, there’s an obvious desire for redemption, a second shot in a league where he truly believes he belongs. His standout performance with France at the Olympics caught the attention of the NBA once again. After all, he’s a strong, physical stretch-four with a reliable three-point shot. An intriguing profile on paper, and in the context of European salaries, he’s a low-risk option at the NBA level. The Philadelphia 76ers have decided to take that bet, offering him a one-year deal to test the waters.

Yabusele’s move back to the NBA accelerated

Yabusele had one year left on his contract with Real Madrid, and initially, it seemed like his NBA prospects would be more realistic after that ran out in the summer of 2025, at least from a financial standpoint. But his Olympic success boosted his stock and accelerated the timeline. Yabusele has learned that second chances don’t come around often, so he’s leaving with a minimum NBA contract (around $2.1 million), a one-year deal, and a $2.5 million buyout clause he’ll need to pay to Real Madrid. Under NBA rules, the Sixers can contribute up to $850,000 towards that buyout. The rest, roughly $1.6 million, will have to come out of Yabusele’s pocket.

Yabusele departure impacts Real Madrid

For Madrid, losing an important player at this stage of the summer, with much of the transfer market already exhausted, is a clear setback. However, they are likely to make another signing to bolster their roster of forwards (small forwards and power forwards), and they have new (or almost new) resources like Usman Garuba, who is set to return, and youth academy product Eli Ndiaye, who is expected to play a more prominent role. Additionally, at the most critical moments it appears that Gabriel Deck and Mario Hezonja have had more impact (both players are more natural small forwards who can play as power forwards). Yabusele undeniably has talent, but he hasn’t always had the discipline to match it. And now, in addition to freeing up a salary that exceeded a million gross, he’ll leave behind the $2.5 million he’ll pay to secure his release.

With that amount, Real Madrid once again proves (through a combination of planning, strategy, timing, and perhaps a bit of luck in some cases) that they are the kings of NBA buyout clauses, a club that is capitalizing like no other in Europe on the constant flow of players between both sides of the Atlantic. They excel in identifying players who are returning or considering a return and in managing exits that eventually become inevitable. Over the past decade, since 2014, the club has raked in $20.3 million. From Niko Mirotic, the first on the list, to the latest departure of Yabusele.

Luka Doncic (2018): 2

Real Madrid banking NBA cash

That averages out to nearly $2 million a year, with peaks like the one between 2020 and 2021, when Campazzo, Deck, and Garuba (the last to leave until now) all departed within just eight months. Campazzo left after the 2020-21 season had already started, despite his exorbitant buyout clause of $6 million. His compatriot Deck followed in April of that season, and Garuba left that summer during the transition between seasons. Those moves alone brought in over $10 million… with favorable agreements regarding rights that have, interestingly enough, led all three players to return to Real Madrid.

When their paths faltered in the United States, they came back. Campazzo and Deck are already on the roster, and Garuba is awaiting the official announcement of his return. Whether it’s because they want to return to Madrid if they play in Europe or due to the agreements made to reduce or facilitate the payment of buyout clauses, the club often lays the groundwork for future possibilities, which in many cases, as in the ones mentioned, eventually come to fruition... and not necessarily in the distant future.

Sergio “El Chacho” Rodríguez also wanted to return to Madrid after his second stint in the NBA, but he had to wait five years (2017-2022, playing in Moscow and Milan) before closing out his career with two more seasons (2022-24) back in the famous white jersey. One player who didn’t return, though, and was one of the most notable cases in European market history, was Nikola Mirotic, who explored a return to Madrid, but the club at the time wasn’t willing to make an offer similar to the one he eventually received from Barcelona.

In the cases of Mirotic, Doncic, and Garuba, these are players who came up through the youth ranks and developed at Real Madrid, a club that, given their talent, couldn’t prevent them from making the leap to the NBA. Both Sergio Rodríguez’s and now Yabusele’s exits fit the profile of players looking to take another shot at the league after a previous experience there. Sergio’s return to the NBA didn’t go well (as was the case with all mentioned, except Luka Doncic, of course), and he returned to Europe after just one year. That’s the barrier Yabusele hopes to break, aiming to prove that second chances can indeed be successful. If he succeeds, next summer he could land a much more lucrative contract, proving that he made the right move by taking this approach now. It’s a bet he’s more than willing to take.