CBA and Toine

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Jeremy wrote:
"Ideally the new CBA will push free agency back from three years to
five years, but even if it doesn't we still have every advantage in
resigning Antoine when he becomes a free agent.  The important thing is
for Pitino to communicate to Antoine how much he loves him and that
he'll
get his market value when it is actually established."

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Nice post, Jeremy, (if you don't mind my saying so!).   IMO, if
Reinsdorf signs Scottie Pippen to the 20+ million multiyear deal the
Bulls reportedly offered him, then I would be much more in favor of
making Antoine Walker fulfill his present 3 million dollar contract and
prove himself worthy of our Celts next year. Otherwise, there is a
genuine risk that we would lose him to his hometown Bulls for
essentially nothing (at most, 4 million dollars in free cap space I
guess).

Present "capanomics" is increasingly skewing the highest NBA wages
toward unproven 3rd year players rather than the Barkleys, Robinsons
etc. That's just the reality today (ergo, no sense in weeping and
wailing about it), as Josh Ozersky aptly pointed out earlier this week.
Although it's hardly the fault of these young players, I would agree
that this trend is bad for the image of pro basketball (a really great
game, after all), particularly from the point of view of us prol's up in
the (increasingly not) cheap seats.

Anyway, I think you're correct in arguing that we tend to jump-the-gun
by trying to resign unproven players after their second year in the NBA.
I actually imagine that owners aren't dumb-asses (I picture them as
ruthlessly successful businessmen who suffered a mid-life crisis when
they realized they would die so rich and yet so obscure), but at least a
few seem to suffer from tunnel-vision in not recognizing that virtually
every NBA team is in the same boat with regard to rookies and the salary
cap, and that, in any case, the Larry Bird exception favors the home
team retaining a player even more than the "franchise player" label does
in the NFL.  After all, how many "franchise" NBA ball players have
changed addresses via unrestricted free agency lately, compared to the
NFL or MLB?

My sense is that management may have finally learned their "lesson" from
among the Kevin Garnett/Rasheed Wallace/Joe Smith/Jerry Stackhouse
examples. Prior to last year, I think many owners were animated by the
example of Shaq's defection from a deep-pocketed Orlando franchise, and
the player agents (at least Garnett's agent) capitalized on that fear.


Vive la France!


Joe Hironaka


P.S. The thing I love about the French national soccer team is that they
all look like a bunch of immigrants (from Algeria, Armenia, Guadaloupe,
New Caledonia etc.) and yet they play great as a team.   Désolé,
Jean-Marie Le Pen!

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