Even after walking away from the final three years and $20.58 million on his contract with the Jazz, Derek Fisher should have multiple options in the NBA's summer free-agency market.

When the veteran guard announced Monday that the Jazz were letting him out of his deal so he could seek the best-possible medical care for his daughter Tatum, who is battling a rare form of childhood eye cancer called retinoblastoma, Fisher suggested he didn't know if franchises located in a limited list of cities where that's possible would even have interest in him.

"That's the hope," Fisher said at the time, "but every team doesn't need my services, to be honest.

"I'll be 33 (years old) in August, I'm 6-(foot)-1, I averaged 10 points this year ... I don't know how many other people feel that strongly about what I do."

Fisher, however, may be selling himself short.

Fewer than 24 hours after he spoke, Los Angeles Lakers Mitch Kupchak publicly discussed Fisher's plight — and multiple media reports from the L.A. area dissected the likelihood of Fisher rejoining the Lakers, for whom he played during the first eight seasons of his 11-year NBA career.

Since then, several other possibilities have surfaced — aided in large part by the fact the NBA allowed the Jazz to facilitate Fisher making his plans public on the second full day of summer free-agency, rather than waiting until many teams had already made critical personnel decisions.

Before deciding where he'll play, though, agent Mark Bartelstein said Fisher will continue to focus foremost on determining precisely where Tatum can receive the best care.

"People are making it seem like this is about money," Bartelstein said Thursday, "but just the exact opposite is true.

"We haven't talked about money with anybody," the Chicago-based agent added. "I was asked by a reporter in Los Angeles what I thought Derek was worth, and my answer was 'worth a lot more than the midlevel,' because he just walked away from that. But we haven't asked for anything from anybody. His interest right now is finding the right place for his daughter, and then we'll go from there."

Fisher, who would have made $6.37 million next season, could perhaps find a team willing to pay midlevel-exception money, which is a multiyear contract beginning at about $5.8 million in 2007-08.

That would allow him to recoup much of the $20.58 million from which he's walked away.

But because of his age and complicated NBA collective bargaining rules, he essentially would be able to sign only a four-year deal and a not a full five-year midlevel contract — meaning it's unlikely he'll come out much, if any, ahead.