Rebraca, Clippers Are Close to Deal

At least one Clipper free agent will be back next season.

Bobby Simmons is gone, Marko Jaric is in limbo and Kerry Kittles was never in their plans, but backup center Zeljko Rebraca is close to reaching an agreement with the Clippers on a three-year contract, his agent said Thursday.

“His desire was to return,” agent Bill Duffy said. “He and his family have enjoyed L.A., and the Clipper experience worked out pretty well for him.”

Duffy said the deal could be completed today.

Contracts cannot be signed, however, until the new collective bargaining agreement is finalized, probably early next week.

Rebraca, 33, averaged 5.8 points and 3.2 rebounds in 16 minutes a game last season while playing behind Chris Kaman.

He made 56.8% of his shots and had a 19-point, 16-rebound game against the Golden State Warriors.

Once a superstar in Europe, where he led teams in Italy and Greece to championships while collecting most-valuable-player hardware along the way, the 7-foot Serb signed with the Clippers last August after Vlade Divac turned them down, accepting a lesser offer to rejoin the Lakers.

Rebraca had consulted with Jaric last summer before rejecting richer offers from other teams for a one-year, $2.5-million deal with the Clippers.

He and his family -- wife Daniela and three children -- settled into Hermosa Beach and Rebraca set about revitalizing a career that had been slowed by injuries and ailments, among them an irregular heartbeat that led to surgery in 2003.

The most valuable player in the 1998 world championships, he gambled that he would be rewarded for a strong season and the Clippers delivered.

His new contract is worth about $12 million, a source said.

Rebraca, who played 10 seasons in Europe before joining the Detroit Pistons as a 29-year-old rookie in 2001, was given a clean bill of health before last summer. He sat out 24 games last season because of back and wrist injuries but played in 58, two more than he’d played in the previous two seasons, when his arrhythmia was diagnosed and he wondered whether he’d ever leave a mark on the NBA.

His career back on track, he never really considered leaving the Clippers, saying last month before a European vacation that he intended to return.

And the Clippers, who like his low-post skills and perimeter jump shot, never wavered in saying that they planned to bring him back.