Ron's agent

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

I have a serious concern about the quote Peter May attributed to Ron's agent yuesterday:


                       So what to make of the Celtics and Ron Mercer? Are they
lowballing him, or does Mercer
                       have an inflated opinion of himself? We know Rick
Pitino didn't hesitate to shell out more
                       than $50 million for Travis Knight and Chris Mills. We
know he didn't hesitate to
                       re-sign Walter McCarty for $8.4 million. When he
acquired Kenny Anderson, Pitino
                       said one of the undeniable benefits was that Anderson
was locked in long-term. We know only
                       recently, Pitino said, ''I think, possibly, we can make
[Mercer] a real good offer that he'll be
                       happy with.'' Not. If there is a budget crunch, as
Pitino insists, why should Mercer have to pay
                       for all the previous signings? ''I can tell you this.
Ron is disgusted with the way management has
                       handled this,'' said Mercer's agent, Tevester Scott.
''You can't punish him because of what
                       you did before. What they offered him is embarrassing.
We're not even in the same state. When
                       he called me and told me what it was, we both fell out
of our chairs laughing.'' Well, whether the
                       Celtics' offer amounts to punishment or insult is, of
course, relative. ''We're at the beginning of
                       the process here,'' said general manager Chris Wallace.
''I'll leave it at that.'' But after
                       Antoine Walker ($9 million) and Anderson ($6.68
million), the next highest salary belongs
                       to Vitaly Potapenko ($3.81 million). In other words,
the Celtics may have cap woes, but it's
                       because of a lot of ''average'' salaries doled out to
the likes of Greg Minor and Pervis
                       Ellison (both M.L. Carr signings), as well as Popeye
Jones, McCarty and, incredibly,
                       Dwayne Schintzius. (Why Schintzius was given $2.8
million over two years should warrant
                       a Spotlight Team investigation. It's not like he had
any leverage.) The Celtics can pay Mercer
                       whatever they want up to the $71 million limit that
they gladly and without hesitation gave
                       Walker. ''Seventy-one million? Well, that's not
close,'' Scott said. ''Let's just say if $71 million
                       is on one side of the mountain, we're not to the point
where we can even see it from the other
                       side.''

What the hell does this last line mean? Walker's salary "isn't even close?"
Can anyone elucidate on this? Is $71 mil really what Antoine gets paid? I
can't remember the number.