The Spurs signed Jeff Pendergraph to a two-year contract in free agency this summer, but Pendergraph will never play for the team -- Jeff Ayres will instead.
It’s a long and somewhat interesting story, but the basics are excerpted here as a public service announcement to Spurs fans who may wonder what’s going on once training camp opens in a couple of weeks.
From Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News:Last month, Pendergraph walked into a courthouse in downtown Phoenix, his wife Raneem and newborn daughter Naomi in tow.
He walked out with a new name — Jeff Ayres.
Ayres is family name of his biological father, James. It replaces the surname of a stepfather who hasn’t been in the picture since the player formerly known Jeff Pendergraph was in high school.
For the 26-year-old veteran of three NBA seasons, the journey from Pendergraph to Ayres was in some ways as simple as filling out a thick stack of paperwork and filing it with an Arizona judge.
It was also a complicated decision, with a complex back story, one that tests the traditional definitions of blood and family.We won’t get into all of the family business here, but suffice it to say that Jeff Pendergraph is no more. The man with career averages of 2.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in 9.2 minutes per game over three NBA seasons will be known as Jeff Ayres from this point forward, as he embarks on the next phase of his career in San Antonio.
