DeAndre Jordan/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers, NBA.com

Free agents could be offered contracts July 1. But they couldn’t sign them until the clock struck midnight on July 9 Eastern time.

DeAndre Jordan on Friday, July 3, verbally agreed to a 4-year contract with the Dallas Mavericks. He backed out of that late Wednesday night and at 12:01 Eastern time, he re-signed with the Clippers.

During a conference call Thursday, coach Doc Rivers was asked if he thought the moratorium time between when players could accept and then sign contracts should be changed. Rivers at first was funny.

“I think it’s great now,” he said. “I mean, what kind of a question is that?”

Then he got serious.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I do think guys need time. People, you know, they make this decision and make it seem like it’s so easy for anybody to make. These are career decisions that young people are making, and career financial decisions people are making. If the ebb and flow goes back and forth where a guy decides and then undecides and then changes his mind and goes back, that’s life.

“It happens every day in business, and it happens in our business. The difference, if you’re the team the guy committed to first, it’s a tough seven days. I’ve been through that; or eight days, or whatever it is.”