Big bucks deals and stories from the past

Another day, another few snippets of stuff.

Man, do we churn it out here or what?

-

There’s been a lot of talk over the last couple of days – actually, it’s been a point of contention for most of the year for some of you – about who, or what, constitutes a “max-contract guy.”

Now, I’m here to tell you there a very, very, very, very few players who actually deserve those maximum contracts, I’d put Kobe, LeBron and Wade in that small group and probably Durant, too, but that’s really neither here nor there.

It’s perception that matters and if you’re going to have a “star” player, you’re going to have to pay him “star” money, regardless of what you really think. You hold your nose, right write the cheque and get on with life.

Is Chris Bosh worth 30 per cent of the annual salary cap, which is max value for him? Of course not. But it doesn’t matter. He’s going to get it and if you want to keep him, that’s the going rate.

Even Bryan alluded to this the other day:

“Contracts are not always justifiable in sports, they’re just not. But it’s a situation where Chris Bosh is considered a maximum contract player for multiple reasons and I would assume he’d be that if he stayed here.”

The whole thing of “worth” in any pro sports is rather nonsensical to me, as a matter of fact. Players in all sports get tagged, as the sage Jalen Rose once said, as dollar signs rather than the people and that’s not right.

So if Chris Bosh or Joe Johnson or Amar’e Stoudemire or anyone else goes out to market this summer and comes back with a contract worth untold millions and at the maximum allowable amount, I say good for them.

I just wish there were maximum-value contracts in my gig.

-

As I’m sitting there watching the Miami Heat score all of, what, 10 points in the second half quarter and look like one of the most confused offensive teams in the history of NBA basketball, one thought came to mind:

“What kind of knucklehead would pick ‘em to win a series?”

Oh, wait. That’d be me. And, apparently, Charles Barkley and I’m wondering when some big shot network’s going to come calling.

-

So, we took attendance and it seems you folks – a hearty few at least – do care.

Only because a few people asked, I’ll tell you we had about 690 folks around for the hour-long question and answer session yesterday afternoon and you sent in about 350 queries, about 70 of which were answered in the 60 minutes or so.

For the game? Well, it could have been better but it was the first night, a dog of a game and we had about 510 take part.

The Q and A numbers are about average for a regular season game, the in-game numbers are down, but it wasn’t unexpected.

But it’s enough to keep going, right?

We’ll be here for Charlotte-Orlando tonight at 7 and then let’s have ourselves a late night on Thursday with Lakers-Oklahoma City at 9:30 p.m. (I know I’m blowing off the Suns at 10 but they’ll have a Game 5 Monday and I can’t be sure there’ll be on in the Lakers-Thunder series).

Sound okay?

-

I know this is old but I don’t think it got much ink up here and it probably should have.

Good on Sam Dalembert, I say, for winning a pretty prestigious award.

-

Story time, in the absence of, you know, news and stuff:

With the season over here and all the post-season hoopla and wrapup seemingly done, I’m trying to think back to other great, end-of-the-year stories from days gone by. Not necessarily the nuts and bolts of what went wrong but the moments that stick with you.

Two come to mind:

Last day of the first season.

I’m standing on the loading dock of the dome enjoying some fresh air and chatting with Oliver Miller’s mom.

He’s got a player option that summer on the last year of a deal that’s going to pay him about $3 million I believe (and that was pretty good chunk of change 15 years ago) and for sure he’s going to come back, right? Well, no. Mom says, and I’m recalling quotes here: “Oliver’s going to go out and get a new big deal” and I’m thinking, “um, ah, er, well, good luck to him.”

So that season ends, O’s a free agent, he can’t get a sniff of a new deal and comes back later that next year on a minimum salary deal and bounces around for the rest of his career.

Heckuva end to that season, no?

Day after the last day of the KO Year.

Season ends in Milwaukee and we’ve all got mid-morning flights to get back for the locker clean out and never-ending stream of interviews. But there’s this feeling (brought on by the fact KO’d been trying for two weeks to get either a buyout or an extension) that something might happen so the flight’s get changed to stupidly early and we drag our tired carcasses down to the arena.

And that’s when KO gives us the (and I’m paraphrasing again, here): “There are people in this organization who don’t want to win, all they care about is sniffing jocks and it’s management and they need to leave the basketball people alone.” Whoo! And boy!! Sure enough, he gets whacked the next day and another glorious season comes to an end.

I tell ya, this franchise has been far better story than a team in the decade and a half I’ve been around.

-

Mail? Sure, we’ll keep doing mail.

Drop a line here and we’ll start putting together the weekend compilation.

-

Comments

[The J]

First off, in a true "perfect world"-sense, no athlete in any sport deserves $30+ million to play a game. Yes, it's sad that they make this much when teachers, and nurses, and other important people make so much less in comparison. Heck even our doctors and lawyers will never sniff as much money as players who will never sniff any sort of consistent playing time. In otherwords, we'd all give up almost anything to have POB's job.

But in a real-world "Free Market" sense, between ticket sales, TV, internet, advertising, and sales of everything from Jerseys to Snuggies, a lot of money is made in profeesional sport. And while much of this money is made by the entertainment level of the sport, just as much is made by the celebrity and fan appreciation we appoint to these "Star" players. In otherwords, you buy a jersey because you enjoy the sport, but you buy a Raptor's CB4 jersey because you love that team and that player. For these athletes to not make these ridiculous somes of money would be to undermind the fact they are generating these somes of money. And in the end would leave the owners richer than they are, and the players unfairly compensated for what they generate. So in a very real, but sad way, most of these players deserve this money.

As for CB4 as a max player. It may not seem fair when comparing him to Kobe, Wade and LeBron. But when you consider what the Raptors have done without him, and what they can accomplish with him, 30% of the teams value seems reasonable to me. Of course this also assumes that he will continue to make good on his potential (playoff success, maybe an all-nba team in the future). Otherwise he is 30% of the teams value, but maybe we should be questioning the teams value in the first place (if we aren't already).

[Michel G]

manap3000 wrote: "hey doug, if i see calderon at point with bargnani at centre next year the raptors and i will reach the end of the line, not a single game will be watched let alone going to one;I just can't handle the defensive dissapointment; is my boycott justifiable?"
If you were protesting global warming or poverty, yeah maybe. But this is basketball. I hate to say this, I don't think anybody would care.

[johny]

very poor call with miami winning. Clearly did not look at the impact of Boston's veterans ---they don't care about the regular season. shows poor basketball knowledge making that call.

Blogger's note: Thanks. I don't imagine I was alone on that call but obviously we can't all have your wealth of knowledge. Sadly.

[TJ]

Afternoon good sir.
Couple of quick questions for you about pending free agents and the cap rules.
1) if a team is above the cap but not the tax cap, has a max contract free agent and they do a sign and trade to a team way under the cap, can we swap him for cap space back?
2) do you think bosh is worth max money under the cba, but maybe Kobe, Wade, and LBJ are worth more but the cba won't allow it? And is that reason they have the cba, to avoid bidding wars?

Blogger's note: I think no, and yes

[Tim from Windsor]

Just curious -what was the 'rate of knuckleheadism' in last night's in-game, compared to when the local HOTHC play?

Blogger's note: Quite low, as a matter of fact

[Aditya]

http://thebiglead.com/?p=5319

hey doug, you need to read the above link... the only thing i can think is that the toronto star writer (namely doug smith) would dare not criticize the team or players on the team for a fear of not being in a good relationship with that particular player/coach. seriously doug, you know if you ever criticized the coach or the players, your life would be much harder (meaning your job would be much harder). may be, since dave feschuk is younger, he stands up for what he believes is right and isn't afraid to criticize bryan colangelo, player's effort, jay triano's peculiar substition patterns (hey, jose and jack didn't play together all that much or at all in the second half of that season, guess what, it didn't work).... now do what's right and ask some tough questions in your post-game conferences (this is a classic by Jay Triano: "I thought we played hard")... all the reporters / fans are thinking, "No you guys did not".

[joe]

The issue of salaries all comes to down to the notion of value added. A team makes X amount of dollars but understands that without the players, fans would not come to see them. So, the player then says well I add X% of value to your franchise because without me, you wouldn't get $X so I deserve a certain % of revenues. This makes sense but the problem is it isn't applied in other jobs. An example would be a teacher. If a teacher has a 1% impact on the ability of a student to go out, get a job, make money etc., theoretically, like in sports, they should merit 1% of the student's lifetime earnings. If the average Canadian works 30 years and makes $40K doing so, their lifetime earnings is 1.2 million. So, the teacher should get 1% of that or $12 000. Multiply that by 25 kids in a class and the teacher should be getting 300 000/year. We all know that doesn't happening not in teaching, nor many other jobs. The fact that the salaries athletes and celebrities get are so exuberant is more of a reflection of the values of our society than it is on the players. I don't fault the players for getting what they can. It's a shame that the same market forces don't apply in other fields too.

[Juan]

Edyita
Are you truly so naiive that you believe the postgame interview is the forum that an NBA coach chooses to tell the truth about his team? Seriously???
That's laughable! And embarrassing for you to even consider.
There are 100 reasons even I can think of (I not being an NBA coach) that one would choose not use that particular opportunity to publicize the shortcomings of his team on any given night. Does it somehow offend your warped sense of propriety that the coach is not a moron??