Tag Archives: free agent

Minutes after Lebron announced that he was “taking his talents to South Beach”, I turned around and resumed the Happy Hour I was in the middle of.

I care deeply about sports and care would be an apt word to describe me and my fan dom. I take losses personally and sulk. I still haven’t gotten over Game 7 of the NLCS of 2006. I still haven’t gotten over ball 4 in Game 7 of the NLCS in 1999. Hell, I can’t get over the image of Nate Robinson jumping up and down with Paul Pierce during the playoffs like they’ve been boys for years.

But Lebron choosing to go for Miami wasn’t a loss. July 8th was like every morning you check the lotto results and hope and pray to God that your numbers hit. If it doesn’t, guess what? Life goes on. Not to gass up Lebron any more but if he had chosen New York, let’s be real it wouldve been like hitting the lottery.*
*= of course the other side of it is Cleveland. It hit the lottery in 2003, literally, got Lebron and in 7 years they flushed away the money and were left with nothing and was left really bitter about it.

But New York moved on. Or did it?

Almost 3 weeks later the Knicks find themselves in the same will he or won’t he game that they were playing for the last two years, and surprise surprise it appears Lebron James has his hands over this one.

Chris Paul, is NOT a free agent. He has exactly zero leverage to demand anything of his team. But in reality, the situation is not that simple. Sports stars sell tickets. Owners are at the whim of sports stars and thus to protect their money maker they cater to the wishes and wants of any sports star like changing flight schedules and preferential treatment that others don’t get. Seats for family members, and jobs for friends within the team. Just a few of the perks.

But when a star player becomes disgruntled for whatever reason and demands to be traded it not only hurts the owner from a business sense, it hurts him from a personal sense, thus you have nutjobs like Dan Gilbert writing “I hate you” notes.

I suppose, taking notes from his good friend Lebron Chris Paul plans on making trade demands when he, his new agent (Chris Rose, who also reps Lebron), Hornets new GM Dell Demps, and new coach Monty Williams sit down to go over the plan for the Hornets as they try and convince Paul that they are committed to bringing a title to N’awlins.

Star players can demand these sit downs with ownership because its viewed as a sign of good faith because let’s face it, no player wants to spend their peak years playing on borderline good to bad teams.

But Paul has listed the Knicks as a possible landing spot if he demands a trade and the Knicks could match up trade wise with the Hornets if they were so inclined.

I say no.

I say if anyone in this city has any pride they should say no. I know that trading for him would make the Knicks a much better team but think about the message it sends throughout the league. If Paul wants to come here in two years, then let him but the precedent Lebron has set is unsettling for a few reasons:

1. STOP THE AAU-ization of athletes- It gives free rein for superstar athletes to up and leave teams high and dry. Fan bases and whole communities become connected with these guys and teams that let these players call the shots within the organization set themselves up.
The biggest thing AAU did for these guys was give them the shady runner/agent feel from an even younger age than football players. These traveling camps pick the best kids from inner cities then these coaches pocket the money and influence a kid to whatever high school and college pay them the most.

These “mentors” stay with the player throughout, and become who teams talk to in order to get to the star player. That’s why even earlier on, being the lackey is a far more lucrative business than player.

The players are from a young age given preferential treatment which of course allows them to think that the rules don’t apply to them. At no point in their lives, until they mess it up off the field, do they ever have to lift a finger for them. They have an entourage to do everything.

Next time you wonder who this guy thinks he is, when he asks for a trade with two years left on a guaranteed scale with absolutely no leverage except being a star player, remember what I just told you. These guys are spoiled beyond belief and no amount of “reason” can convince them of any other way.

So I suppose it makes sense that Lebron, the king spoiled athlete/brat is advising him to do what “is best for him and his family.”

2. SUPERTEAMS may be enjoyable. But only for the 4 or 5 fanbases lucky enough to have one. I have no problem with the way Oklahoma City is built through the draft or how San Antonio was built. I do however have a problem with the league being just a few really powerful teams and everyone else being mediocre to poor teams. Its just not fair and even if the dream scenario were to happen in NY of a Melo, Amare, and CP3 union.
Its clear that these guys are much smarter business wise than generations before them. They are trying to follow the Jordan plan to be wealthy and not just rich.
Only the elite guys have the opportunity to do that and they are taking advantage of that. And Lebron and his friends are leading the charge.

3. Stop the US vs THEM argument- and by them I mean management and leadership. Riles may have coaxed the threesome to South Beach but I think Lebron’s grand scheme goes further than that. His boys want a piece of the pie and are using Lebron’s status to get there. Thus, if management doesn’t give them what they want they can seek out new ones that will and don’t think it will just stop at basketball. IF Paul’s group can get him out of New Orleans plenty other sports stars will view them as miracle workers and they can market themselves as such. Owners and players have long been at odds and while I wholistically disagree with Jesse Jackson’s assertion that Dan Gilbert has a “slaveowner’s mentality” that’s really what it comes down to for them. The ownership are the enemy and its going to take players teaming up on THEIR terms to bring back leverage to them. It is a players league after all. Here’s the problem to all this: The players and the owners are heading towards a lockout. Owners will remember this kind of player collusion much like the NFL’s players will remember the suspected owner collusion in doling out rookie contracts. No one forgets a thing in these matters and when it comes time to resolve issues at a bargaining table all the ugliness will come out and it won’t help that ownership sees more power shifting to players as they see a bigger cut of the profit pie.

Those reasons may or may not have convinced you, but let me explain my side to you in another light.

When I agreed to meet my friends for happy hour and watch “the Decision” I did so realizing that I would most likely be disappointed, but the bright side was that cheap drinks and a rooftop would ease my pain.

It didn’t. It sucked. I really thought the Knicks were getting set to cash in the lottery ticket and for the first time I saw the city’s collective wind being sucked out. Everyone went back to their respective conversations but we kept looking at the screen with disappointment and all you kept thinking was “is this guy serious?”

For the last two years we had waited patiently and sat through bad basketball. We had waited for this moment and we were all in from jump street about the plan of action. We could take the losing if in the end it meant a bigger reward. We laid two stink bomb years and even put our pride to the side and cheered Lebron despite the fact that he was wearing a different team’s uniform.

We were rewarded with Chris Broussard’s constant Miami theory and Stephen A Smith’s rant about Miami. We were given a phony hour long special and a lousy explanation. We were duped into believing that we had a shot when we never did and we paid by sacrificing two years of sucky basketball just to not hear our name called when time came for it to be called.

Frankly Mr. Paul, and all other free agents, I have a message: New York is not a city full of suckers. We’re not going to sit and wait for things to happen. We aren’t going to be drawn in and read into twitter posts or sit through Chris Broussard’s “source reports.”.

I like our team. I like Felton and I LOVE that we got Anthony Randolph for nothing. If a free agent wants to grab enough balls to come here, that’s cool. We’d love to have you but if not, that’s fine. I’m done waiting for the next generation of superstar athlete baiting us into another few seasons of losing.

I’m not blaming the free agents, its not their fault that we let Scott Layden and Isiah Thomas make foolish trades to have us tied up for years. But the way things are going, Knicks fans are continuously left waiting on a lottery ticket to be handed to them and frankly I’m done waiting. Its time to make with what we got.

So if I have to trade away my entire team for Chris Paul, thanks, but no thanks.