Blabbermouth GMs

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Something interesting that has come up is the Heat and Raptors bashing
the Philly GM Billy King for "confirming" trade talk between the Heat and
Raptors. This is after Riley criticized the Philly organization for
unprofessional leaks. I have to think they are probably right because
I remember King leaking to the media a Celtics offer of Brown and
Barros for Derrick Coleman in '97.

I think it goes to show that when "some GM" says that so-and-so is
going to be traded, there could be very little truth to it. King seems
to maliciously leak information to the media just to mess up other
teams. I wouldn't be surprised if he, or someone like him, is the source
of the rumors that the Celtics are trying to give Antoine away.

The reports about Fortson's agent demanding too much money are unfortunate
because we've seen similar reports about Walker (before the lockout) and
Mercer. It's certainly possible because Fortson did fire his old agent,
who the Celtics probably had an understanding with (otherwise they would
have been more hesitant to make the trade). You really hate to hear about
his agent asking for too much because it probably makes him less valuable
in the trade market too, because whoever takes him may also not want to
meet his price. Of course, these things can backfire on Fortson because
if the team holding his Larry Bird rights decides that he's not worth it,
he could be forced to take the $2M exception from someone.

Anyways, it's bad news and I was hoping we had traded our way out of 
this sort of blackmail situation. It looked like we had because his former
agent didn't make a fuss when the decision was made not to extend Fortson
early - usually agents for these young players try to blackmail teams a
year before, if they are going to blackmail at all.

Alex