RE: OK, now I get it

["Berry, Mark S" <mberry@journalink.com>]

I think one of the most interesting tidbits from May's stuff this week is
his point that Antoine and Kenny (approx. 9 and 6 mil, respectively) are the
only highly-paid players on the team (VP is next at 3+ mill). May brought up
the point to criticize the team, somewhat fairly, for all the mediocre
contracts causing cap problems.

The other half of this story is most of those contracts come up within the
next two or three seasons. May loves to criticize Pitino for McCarty's
three-year contract, but it ends about the same time as Dana, Minor, Pervis,
etc. It means the Celts can suddenly clear quite a bit of cap room in the
next couple of years and, in my opinion, also sheds some light on Pitino's
reluctance to over-pay (or maybe even pay fair market) for Mercer. I believe
Pitino isn't convinced that Mercer is anything more than a complementary
player and isn't willing to sacrifice big money long term (that is key).
That might change if he could package Mercer for a talent he does feel
warrants that kind of contract.

Is it August yet?

Mark

> ----------
> From: 	peter delevett
> Sent: 	Monday, July 12, 1999 1:37 PM
> To: 	Celtics
> Subject: 	OK, now I get it
> 
> I just read Peter May's report at The Sporting News
> (http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/teams/celtics/), and he cleared up his
> murky
> language. Mercer's agent meant the team's offer was "not even close" to
> $71
> mil. There were no specifics of what the team offered or what Ron was
> asking
> for, though May did say Ron wasn't asking for the maximum. Who know how
> May
> knows that, or whether whoever told him that is shooting straight.
> 
> May also notes that the team is going to have to go through this same
> dance to
> re-sign Battie. Now, if I'm Tony, how do I feel about the team playing
> miser
> with Ron? Maybe even more important, what kind of message does this send
> to
> free agents? The team has consistently treated its players badly since
> Pitino
> came aboard, it seems to me. Then again, considering the stellar cast of
> superstars the C's are said to be considering (Michael Curry, Rodney
> Rogers &
> Jon Barry), these guys should consider themselves lucky not to be pumping
> gas.
>