Alex Anthopoulos

It doesn't mean you couldn't, but it's going to make it significantly more challenging.

then it just was a no-brainer.

But we weren't going to telegraph and indicate to anybody that, hey, we want to try to sign this guy back and so on.

I mean, we had conversations, but we needed to get to the offseason.

You know, it just took time, and we're just grateful that it got done.

Yeah.

I don't want to speak for him.

You know, I think that's what we've been talking about the entire time.

So, you know, that was where this was going to go.

And it was just a matter of finding that spot that made sense for both sides.

So...

I guess it's like when you're involved in it every day and you're talking and you're staying.

So it's hard to say you're surprised by anything, right?

It's not.

It's someone that we've had.

We talked about internally in July.

We had discussions during the season before the season ended with him.

And we made it clear we wanted him to stay.

He made it clear we were his first choice.

And, uh, but also, you know, you have to, yeah, it's you're in the right to be a free agent and see what his value was going to be and so on.