What a mess

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm still waiting to hear a good explanation of this "suspension." One of
the articles this morning touched on it, but it's still not completely
clear. I can't believe Vin agreed to a non-paid suspension for an offense
that isn't actually banned in the collective bargaining agreement. Can you
imagine if a team tried this in major league baseball? That union would eat
the team for lunch. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing, just an
observation.

There's some good stuff roasting Wallace from several of the writers. The
incredible thing is, you could have said all this the minute the trade was
made (and many of us did). This isn't a "hindsight is 20-20" kind of thing.
Everyone knew this was a disaster. Everyone saw this coming. Everyone. But
Wallace did it anyway. This isn't Ken Griffey Jr. being traded to Cincinnati
and flopping. This is knowingly trading for Carl Everett with a worse
contract (maybe Chris Wallace called John Hart for advice, since he didn't
bother to call Westphal or Ford). It's really inexcusable.

We don't know all the details, but apparently Wallace had the option of
trading for Baker or Croshere. If those are your options-and that's all
that's coming back-then you do nothing and let Kenny walk. You don't take on
bad contracts for bad players in exchange for good contracts. You just
don't. If you're giving up that great contract, you better get an outright
win in terms of talent. Not a push. A win. This is simple, but Wallace
didn't get it. If you trade Kenny for Vin Baker, you better insist that
Desmond Mason is included. Or Vlad Radmanovic. Or a couple of first-round
picks. If you trade him for Austin Croshere, you better make sure Jamaal
Tinsley is included. Or Jonathan Bender. Or first-round picks. Remember some
of the recent salary-dump types of trades-Detroit got Cliff Robinson for
basically nothing because they were willing to take on his contract for
expiring contracts. Phoenix did the same thing with Orlando when they traded
for Bo Outlaw. Detroit and Phoenix got the vastly superior talent, but they
paid for it by taking on worse contracts. Wallace was offering at least
comparable talent (and some would say Kenny was the best player in all these
discussions) and getting back vastly inferior contracts. 

I belabor this because it points to just how bad Wallace is. He didn't just
misjudge Vin Baker. He completely underplayed his hand. Completely. And he
has the gall to talk about unloading bad contracts (Vitaly and Forte) in the
process? Are you kidding me? If contracts for first-round picks are that
bad, let's just trade them off for second-rounders for now on. 

Whatever. I'm hoping every black eye now-starting with the 2001 draft, then
the Vin Baker trade, then the Vin heart "palpitations," then the Blount
trade embarrassment and now the Baker suspension-just pushes Wallace one
step closer to the door. I can't believe the new owners will stick with this
guy. I can't believe it. They're smart guys, right? They have to understand
just how bad he's been, don't they? 

Mark

P.S. The Celtics are talking publicly about "supporting" Vin, but that's a
crock. They're clearly doing just what I mentioned yesterday-trying to
badger him into retiring. You don't bully someone into accepting a non-paid
suspension that is specious at its heart if you're "supporting" someone.
They're trying to make it so clear to him that he's not welcome that he
finally just retires or accepts a buyout. It's a shame, because as much as
Vin bears responsibility for his own actions, the Celtics bear
responsibility for bringing him to Boston when everyone already knew about
Vin's problems. Like Obie says, "good organizations support their people."
The old Celtics would have done just that.