A sad anniversary, some Tristan Thompson and more TV ranks

So David and Billy and Adam and Derek are going to sit down in a room next week and the inexorable march to a resolution to this NBA lockout continues.

It’s a slow slog, as we’ve said, but the fact that the four main players – Stern, Hunter, Silver and Fisher – will chat carries one bit of significance.

The meeting will be unencumbered by lawyers or accountants or owners or other players and when it comes right down to it, those four guys are the men who’ll have to make a deal.

I don’t imagine they will next week, the chasm is still to wide, but this is another step.

One thing to remember:

The last time the league found itself in this predicament, back in 1999, they didn’t even start canceling pre-season games until well into September and didn’t even think about canceling regular season games until October.

It’s still August, it’s still dead time around the league, there is no pressure point looming. Let ‘em talk, take the next baby step and just relax a little bit.

No one has yet to lose a thing, no sense getting too worked up about it at the moment.

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Not sure how many I’ve had but there have been many notes and comments from people who are sure that Tristan Thompson’s decision not to play for Canada this summer has to do with some deep-felt animosity towards one of: Leo Rautins, Canada Basketball, Canada Basketball or Leo Rautins.

Surprise, surprise. No true.

As we’ve mentioned a time or two, the story is there’ve been other commitments in his life and The First Lady Of The Beat nails it with this story.

Seems this summer is dedicated to fulfilling a promise to his Mom. Not a bad thing at all.

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Sixty years ago today.

Two buddies, a fishing trip, a plane, a crash, a tragedy, a song.

And here’s the thing about Super Grandpa.

We’re sitting around the house a handful of years ago and for some reason Barilko’s name comes up in conversation, no idea how, but it does.

Now this isn’t more than five or seven years ago, I don’t think and out of the blue, The Old Man says:

“Yeah, I was at that game when he scored the goal.”

What? In all my 40-something years on the planet as that guy’s son and in all my, you know, sports writing years, you’d think that’d be a story I’d heard.

Nope.

Seems he and buddy drive up, grab standing room spots, watch the game, see one of the more celebrated goals in Leaves Pucks History and somehow we go 40-something years without knowing it.

Yeah, Dear Old Dad’s a piece of work.

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Yes, I did forget Law And Order, Trial Jury with Lilith Sternin, and Law And Order, UK with almost incomprehensible accents.

But I’m sure in this ranking I haven’t forgotten one:

CSI

The original’s still the best and I can’t wait for Ted Danson to take over, although I’ll miss Laurence Fishburne. Still the gold standard.

CSI New York

Guilty pleasure: I had a crush on Melina Kanakaredes from her days on Providence and her departure from CSI New York now is made a touch easier by the fact she’s being replaced by Sela Ward, equally crush-worthy. Oh, and the show’s good overall, too.

CSI Miami

If you can stomach the over-acting of the redheaded guy, who should never have left NYPD Blue, you’re a better person than I.

(Don’t tell anyone about that Providence thing, ok?)

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Speaking of Canada Basketball, and the men’s team was beaten by Puerto Rico last night, we’ve got this early out of the mail.

Q: Hey Doug. Excellent blog, I read it as often as I can! I'm not sure if you can help me out with this one but here it goes. I was looking at the roster of the Canadian Men's Basketball Team this year and was wondering about the level of play of the European clubs some of these guys are playing for (ie. Denham Brown at Dnipro, Carl English at DKV Joventut etc.). I know these guys are playing at a very high level but I was wondering if some of these clubs listed on the Canada roster are in more competitive divisions or leagues than others?

Ben W, Southampton

A: The honest truth is that it’s not very high calibre at all and that’s an issue. There isn’t a guy on the national team who played in Europe last season who was with a domestic club that was in the EuroLeague aside from their own country’s leagues.

Yes, Canada has produced a few NBAers and there would seem to be more on the horizon but until our middle-of-the-road guys establish themselves as the highest level of European play, the program may tread water longer than it should. I know Maurizio Gherardini has been instrumental in helping Canadian kids get jobs over there, it’s now up to the players to improve so that they get to the upper echelons of European basketball.

Here’s a did you know:

Canada had zero players in the EuroLeague last season.

Belgium, at least the team Canada played here a couple of weeks ago, had four.

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Speaking of mail, I might have enough now for a good mailbag for Saturday but Sunday’s looking kind of bleak.

Help a fella out, will you.

Do it here.

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So, Griff writes about John Farrell having to leave the TOD game in the ninth for medical reasons and all I can think of is how in the world did I miss that one?

Anyway, I’ll be back to deal with the fallout tonight, which will give me a nice little story to work on during the game.

Toss that in with a whole bunch of other stuff going on and I don’t know that an IGBT’s a go tonight; let’s try for one in the afternoon Sunday to wrap up the series with Tampa, shall we?

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Comments

[billy]

Wow.
Another Tranna basketball player refusing to play for his own country.
Then again what do you expect?

People in Tranna like to act like they're Americans.
They laugh at or ignore their own country.
So for this kid Canada is nothing to him.

Way to go Tranna.
You're too big for us in your small minds.
Too bad the Americans don't want you either..

Maybe you should secede and form your own little country.
Then we'll invade you and turn you into a Canadian colony.
Then your kids might respect this country more.

Because this basketball kid refusing to play for his country is what your little berg has become.

Blogger's note: It's actually "burg" and, trust me, we don't miss you not being part of it. Am sure your tiny hamlet is quaint

[john]

“Canada had zero players in the EuroLeague last season.
Belgium, at least the team Canada played here a couple of weeks ago, had four.”.

Interestingly, Belgium has exactly one player in the NBA.
Canada has seven (including Tristan and Joseph)

[David Moon]

Doug - great job - keep it up. TOD comment - Pneumonia? Expected back today? Isn't penumonia sort of serious? I hope AA tells him to take the weekend off, grab a few movies and get better. Jays are totally on track this year and I think Farrell's done a great job. I just don't see how the stress of managing would help with recovery from pneumonia. Can you look into this today, or is pneumonia just not as bad as it used to be?

Blogger's note: I most certainly will

[doug]

@Billy lay off the moonshine it's affecting your thought processes...that was a good story on "grandpa" and the Barilko goal, old folks lived in a different era where I guess life and events were just life and events, nothing special...I rented Walk the Line the Johnny Cash flick a few years ago and went over and watched it with my mom as I knew she would like it...well the scene comes on with Cash proposing to June carter and my mom says nonchalantly your father and I were there that night...I go yea right she goes on to explain in detail how they got tickets at the last minute for Old London Arena and how Cash proposed etc. ..it was fascinating and I asked her why didn't you ever tell us before, she goes "it never came up I'm telling you now"...good old parents they have a way with words...CSI, any CSI is in my list for the top 5 worse shows of all times, so unrealistic and David Caruso should kneel and pray each night before he goes to bed and give thanks that he gets paid for what he does as it's definitely not acting...

[Mike kovacs]

Now I know who the First Lady of the Beat is!

[doug]

kudos to your paper for running this story....it speaks for itself and shows there are far more quality people as athletes then people realize...

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb/article/1045314--indians-prospect-donates-part-of-signing-bonus-in-honour-of-autistic-brother

[m]

"Wow.
Another Tranna basketball player refusing to play for his own country........................Because this basketball kid refusing to play for his country is what your little berg has become."
Billy, you're just silly.

[Boko]

(Any kind of ) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ... I like CSI:NY over CSI cause there aren't any hard-to-take lab assistants. My wife likes CSI: Miami most. (She likes soaps, too.) Go figure ...

[Jodun]

Is that the same Lori who is a legendary IGBT comment creator?

Blogger's note: No, two different people.

[J]

In case you have any control over the photo caption for your article today, just a heads up that the Lithuanian player isn't Valanciunas. Or at least it doesn't look like him. =)

[Thane]

What a laugh - TT wants to play for Canada in the Olympics (if they make it without him).

Sorry, Mr Thompson, but if you're unwilling (for whatever reason -I'm sure that extra semester of school will make a huge difference) to put in the grunt work, don't expect to be rewarded with a trip to London - that's for the players who helped get us there.

[Mark]

New NBA
Everybody (players & teams) talks about the fans. Well, if the fans are most important, let’s all face the music & compromise, while at the same time accept the reality and allow big teams to cover/pay for their mistakes and keep more of their money. More importantly this might help small market teams be competitive. Here are some ideas.
-Establish new Soft cap (I propose 50-53% of BRI) –Let us assume this is $60 mil next year.
-Establish new “Floor” –i.e. minimum salary (I propose 40-45%). In order to help small market teams - increase TV revenue sharing.

-Bi-annual exemption: eliminate it;
-Mid-level exemption: Allowed only every 2nd year. Max contract: 10% of current cap

-Free agency
a) If a team wants to sign its own free agent it can do so under Bird rules & exceed cap once every 1-3 years –subject to new agreement, I think 2 years would be OK. (E.g. Memphis could not sign both Gasol & Randolph (actually neither this year because they gave Rudy Gay max contract last year) ;
-In order to “help home team keep its own free agents” team can sign a player to 5 years (ALL guaranteed IFF the player stays with the same team for the duration of contract);
Also the “home team” would be allowed to give say 5-10% annual raise to such player (again as long as the player is with the same team).
-If such a player is traded at any time the last year automatically becomes a team option. For E.g.: Knicks could have traded Curry in his 4th year at trade deadline. His 5th year would be team option & thus he could be waived by the 1st day of free agency the following year & thus no money (This would “encourage” such players to “keep in shape”).
-The absolute max contract for any player can be “capped” at 25% of previous year salary cap; If we assume the cap to be $60 mil –the max contract would be $15 mil & no annual increases.

b) If a team signs another team’s free agent in a sign & trade: Max contract would be only 4 years (all 4 years guaranteed IFF the player remains with the same team.
-If he is traded at any point 4th year becomes new team’s option; Also the team could give only 2-5% annual increase (subject to new agreement);

c) If the team signs outright another team’s player as a free agent (assuming the new team is under the cap): Max contract would be for 3 years only –ALL guaranteed no annual increases.
-If the player is traded at any point –new team assumes the contract (i.e. no early termination).

-Annual amnesty:
-Every year by say 1 July (First day of free agency) any team can waive 1 player in last year of contract for any reason. As for “Buy-out” –If the salary is in top 25% -Team would pay the player 75% of contract & “donate another 50% to retired player’s pension fund. For e.g. Cleveland wants to buy-out Jamison who makes 15 mil. Jamison would get $11.25 mil lump sum, payable then AND Cleveland would put 7.5 mil to retired player’s fund. Neither amount would count towards next year salary cap.
-If the salary is in 25-50% range: Player gets 90% of contract & team “donates” another 10 (Assume player makes $5 mil: -Player would get $4.5 mil, and team would give another $1 mil to player’s fund;
-If the salary is in bottom 50% -Player gets 100% and the team “donates” another 10% of the contract to Retired players;
-As for “retired players” I would suggest putting half of this money for the current players & half for already retired players.

-What do you do with “current contracts” & teams that would be over the new salary cap?
a) Reduce all contracts over the new max by up to 20% first year & the rest in second year: (For e.g.; Kobe would make $20+ mil this year & $15 mil next year (25% of $60 mil max); whereas Pau Gasol would get $15 mil this year & next…) Rest of the players: Tough beans (there is still annual amnesty for 1 contract);
b) Since a lot of teams would still be over the cap: “Garage sale”. Trade your players to teams under the cap (teams over the cap CANNOT take back contracts that are higher, either annually or in total: For e.g.: Team over the cap cannot trade a player with 1 year at $10 mil for a player with 2 years at $7 mil per year)
If this does not resolve problem (gets the team under the cap) –Discount/auction. For e.g.: Arenas makes $20 mil –his salary drops by 25% to 15 mil. If no takers for trade, contract deceases by 25% to 11.25 mil (Orlando still pays the difference to Gilbert, 15 mil minus 11.25 is 3.75 mil); If still no takers after say 1 week further reduction by 10% weekly till Arenas gets traded (Orlando covers the salary difference to Arenas between $15 mil & what new team pays).

-Any team still over the cap after 1 year –Total amnesty – release/trade enough to get under (players get paid, as above, but no salary cap hit).

-What are the points of all this:
1. Set more balanced, level playing field between big & small teams;
2. Encourages star players to stay with current teams;
3. Holds owners accountable. There is a price to pay if you make a stupid signing (buy-out is still costing the team);
4. Holds players accountable (If you sign a big contract –it will cost you if you don’t “keep up”)
5. Looks after retired players (recent and older, esp. from 60s & 70s);
6. Eliminates “collusion” by players i.e. formation of supper teams (balance is good);
What do you think?

Blogger's note: I think my head hurts. Lots of good points, though