Re: Walker on ESPN

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 08:55 AM 4/26/98 -0700, Mishra wrote:
>Well! it's not only a different sport but also very different cap rules.
>Let's not be naive, Troy will make his money the restructured salary allows
>Jerry Jones to pay him in signing bonus and have a lower cap number instead
>of salary and a higher cap number. One has to accept that Sports is a
>business and an athelete will get paid what he/she is worth is no more no
>less.

Mishra -your last statement above is the one showing naivitee. The sports is
a business part, fine, but an athlete gets paid what he/she is worth -no
more and no less? That's nonsense, with counter examples being legion on
both sides, ranging from the infamous Jon Koncak contract to all the years
NJ was underpaid relative to his value and other salaries.

Salaries tend to be more a function of external factors like timing on when
the contract expires, who's invovled in a pissing contest with whom, revenue
influxes (note what's happened this year in the NFL with the new TV money),
and perception over reality (the fact that a poor to medicore center is
still likely to make more than a reasonably competent PG or SG simply
because *everyone* needs a center and they're 'so rare', even though the PG
or SG contributes more to the team) than it has to do with how much a player
actually deserves according to their worth.

>Both Pitino & Gaston are displaying their inexperience by trying to
>negotiate Walker's contract in the media, they should keep quite and try
>hammer out a deal.

Just a bit presumptuous on your part, don't you think? Walker and Falk began
the public negotiating and you can hardly call Falk inexperienced. You
disapprove, so it means they're showing inexperience. Maybe they have no
intention of signing hijm and are laying public groundwork to make Walker
the villain for demanding too much when he goes. And what they say publicly
does not necessarily have much to do with what they're really doing, anyway.
I'm not saying I know any better what's the case, just that they may
actually know what they're doing despite your disapproval.

> If Gaston can't handle the money, he should sell the team
>to somebody who can and get out of this business. - Mishra

Oh please. Everybody uses the wrong verb with this. The Cs have plenty of
cash and have since the sale of the TV and radio stations -it's a matter of
will or won't rather than can or can't. And it's not as simple as you've got
the cash, so give it to him. There are ramifications and considerations
beyond the question of whether the money's in Walker's pocket or Gaston's.
<snip>

-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net