A sure sign that the Apacolyspe is upon us

[Gregory Odegaard <grodeg@kalama.com>]

I know Benz gave us the link for this article yesterday, but as is the case with many of us, links don't work on my email software package, so here is the actual article.  Why post it?  Well one the Celts deal in noted, and I take it as being considered goo for us, but more importantly, it appears lucky we are on Falk's good side, also Falk is pure evil and must be stopped before the league is renamed; the NFA, N Falk A, N F@&$ed A.  (Sorry for the weak of heart)  This is a sure sign of the end of this hollowed league that most of us grew up on.  All this and Joltin Joe dies too.  We need to be looking for new heros, not zeros like the Falkster.

Any sign of Celtic game on NBC this season, I haven't broken the news to the kid yet. DENIAL works for me

Greg

"Falk strikes back
By David Aldridge
Special to ESPN.com 

For seven months, the NBA owners locked out the players. They said it was about regaining economic control of the game.

It was really a power play between owners and agents. Agents who exploded salary caps drove the price of doing business up and up and had no real concern about teams or their chemistry.

When the lockout finally ended, the owners thought they'd achieved major victories over the agents. They thought controlling what players could make in a career would make the agent obsolete.

And when Ray Allen negotiated his $71 million extension with the Bucks without the use of an agent, you could hear the snickers among the rich guys. When Rod Strickland had nowhere to go and had to "settle" for $9 million a year from the Washington Wizards, the snickers became loud guffaws.

Turns out they were premature.

They didn't kill David Falk.

Falk got his revenge this week, turning three franchises upside down in the process of showing that he still has juice. In the process, he destroyed the fledgling hopes of the Minnesota Timberwolves and mortgaged the future of the New Jersey Nets.

He also saved John Calipari's job, at least until the end of the season. I'm told the Nets were ready to fire Calipari this week until the Stephon Marbury deal went through. Now, they believe they have to give Cal a chance with a healthy point guard.

The Timberwolves didn't want to trade Marbury. But they had no choice after Falk made it clear to owner Glen Taylor last week that Marbury had no intention of re-signing in Minnesota at season's end.

They had no choice, two months after going through this exact same ridiculous dance with Tom Gugliotta and his agent, only to get nothing in return. That time, the T-Wolves acted on principle; they wouldn't take players they didn't want from the Lakers in a sign-and-trade deal for Googs.

And 20 points and nine boards went out the window.

This time, they held their nose and allowed Falk to broker a deal. And the very owners who decried the influence of Falk and his ilk three months ago worked with him on a three-way trade.

The Nets gave Falk the keys to the kingdom; Falk now represents three of New Jersey's top four players. Marbury and Kerry Kittles will sign long-term contract extensions by the weekend; Keith Van Horn is eligible this summer to get his.

And Nets GM John Nash, who has gotten into public dust-ups with Falk several times over the last few years, will have to smile and open up his owners' wallets.

They weren't the only ones. Ask yourself: Why would a team desperate for help in the middle trade its only legitimate big body for ... um ... Andrew DeClercq? If you're the Cleveland Cavaliers, the answer is simple: the big body, Vitaly Potapenko, had no intention of re-signing after the season. So said his agent, David Falk.

Yeah, the Cavs got a first-rounder from Boston, too. But there's no guarantee that pick is going to bring them anything, and it certainly doesn't help them this season.

But hostages, sometimes, don't think clearly.

Ask yourself; do you think the Hornets wanted to trade Glen Rice, even though they got two pretty good players in the process? This is absolutely no slam on Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell, but pretty good players don't win championships. Great ones do. And in this universe, Rice is a great one. But he wanted all the money the Hornets could give him.

These are not negotiations. These are auctions. "If you don't give me everything you can, I leave." Forget trying to build championship teams.

Who got the best of all these deals? What difference does it make? In two years, everybody's roster is going to be different yet again, anyway. Because this year's first-rounders won't want to play with the teams that drafted them. Because everybody wants to play near home, for a title contender and make all the team's money. Because nobody seems to give a damn about fans who support them, and teams that nurture and develop them.

I'm not being a Pollyanna. The agent's job is to get as much money for his client as he can, and make him happy while doing it. David Falk isn't the only agent who plays hardball with teams when he has the leverage.

And it's a zero-sum game; teams do the same thing to their older, less-secure players. But something is wrong when franchises can never achieve stability. It affects the fundamental fabric of the game when young players don't grow together into young veterans.

The Bulls became the Bulls because Jordan, Pippen and (for a while, at least) Grant stayed together.

That doesn't happen much anymore.

And it stinks."