In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with any club or franchise, i.e. not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present, but who is allowed to solicit contract offers from other teams. In some circumstances, the free agent's options are limited by league rules.

The term came into wider use after sports leagues stopped using a "reserve clause", which provided a repetitive option for the club to renew the contract for one or more years but did not allow the player to terminate it.

Unrestricted free agents are players without a team. They have either been released from their club, had the term of their contract expire without a renewal, or were not chosen in a league's draft of amateur players. These players, generally speaking, are free to entertain offers from all other teams and to decide with whom to sign a new contract.

The specific rules of restricted free agency vary among the major professional sports, but in principle it means that a player is free to solicit offers from other teams for new contracts. However, before this player is allowed to sign with the new club, the current club has a chance to match (or come within 10% in some leagues) the terms of the new contract in which case the player must remain with the original team. In some leagues, if the original team decides not to match the other team's offer for the restricted free agent, the new team provides some number of draft selections to the original team as compensation for losing the player.

LaMarcus Nurae Aldridge (born July 19, 1985) is an American professional basketball player with the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m), 240-pound power forward/center and is the Portland Trail Blazers's team captain.

Aldridge attended Seagoville High School, where he became a Parade All-American and Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) Class 4A Player of the Year prior to graduating in 2004 and attending the University of Texas at Austin. He declared for the 2004 NBA Draft but ultimately withdrew his name. According to one report, Aldridge's initial decision to attend college rather than entering the pro ranks directly from high school was influenced by Shaquille O'Neal's personal advice that he should go to college and then evaluate his NBA prospects. However, in April 2006, near the end of his second year at UT, Aldridge announced that he would leave college to enter the 2006 NBA Draft.

Aldridge was drafted 2nd overall in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, only to have his draft rights traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for their pick, Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa, shortly after. The Bulls acquired the pick from the New York Knicks in the 2005 Eddy Curry trade.

Hyland DeAndre Jordan, Jr. (born July 21, 1988) is an American professional basketball player at center for the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA. He played a year of college basketball at Texas A&M University. He was drafted by the Clippers with the 35th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.

Jordan was born in Houston, Texas to Kimberly Jordan and Hyland Jordan.

In high school, Jordan averaged 15.0 points, 12.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks as a sophomore; 16.5 points, 14.0 rebounds and 7.0 blocks as a junior and 26.1 points, 15.2 rebounds and 8.1 blocks per game as a senior. He was a Parade All-American, named to the first-team All-Greater Houston squad by the Houston Chronicle and was a two-time all-state selection. At Christian Life Center, Jordan posted a career high of 37 points in a game and also set the school record for most blocks in a game with 20.

Coming out of high school, Jordan was rated as the number 8 overall prospect, the number 2 center in the country and the number 1-ranked prep player in Texas by Rivals.com. Jordan was recruited by Florida, Florida State, Indiana, Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, Kentucky and others.