Re:

[Georgek27@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/4/99 5:34:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
pdelevett@amcity.com writes:

<< Is this just your guesstimate about how much he was offered. or do you have
 that on any kind of good authority? I hadn't seen that figure before. Also,
 are you sure Mercer was aksing for $70 mil, or more like Kittles' and 
Finley's
 $52 mil? Just curious. >>

In a sense it's a guesstimate since I'm not privy to the negotiations but it 
was stated in one of the articles posted to the list today that he was 
looking for the max and I have seen it speculated in print before.  The 
Celtics counteroffer was said to be significantly less than what Finley is 
getting.  While I'm guessing Ron would "settle" for $60 mill at this point, I 
don't think there is anyway the Celts were going to go above 45.  Ron better 
hope the Nuggets billionaire owner pays him now because if he lands on the 
market next summer he may be stunned by the offers (which I doubt would 
exceed the 45 he could have gotten from the C's unless he has a breakthrough 
year).
I'm also guessing the Fortson ends up getting about $63m either now or later 
and if Battie is signed it will be in the $45m range.