A wakeup bawl
Posted July 31st, 2006 by Brian Windhorst
This morning at about 4:30 Pacific — I’m on the West Coast working on a project — I was awoken from a perfectly satisfactory dream about golfing by people in the next room being very loud.
A few moments later I heard a hotel security guard’s walkie-talkie crackle in the hall. Which led me to one of two conclusions. Either he was a peeping tom right out of the movie Garden State or some other guest had been awoken and reported a possible assault going on in room 437. If the police come knocking later looking for witness statements, the only thing I’d be able to report is the perp’s name was either "Baby" or "Sweet Jesus."
Unable to return to sleep, I was left to consider who in the NBA has been, ahem, screwed this summer.
The Cavs by the Nuggets. Six years and $60 million for Nene! Totally messed up the Drew Gooden talks.
The Warriors by the Hornets. Golden State may very well have gotten its hands on Al Harrington had the Hornets for some reason decided to just hand the Pacers a $7.5 million trade exception for Peja Stojakovic at the last second. I know the Hornets GM has maintained that it helped them with "flexibility." Uh, yeah, you were concerned with flexibility when giving Peja $64 million and then trading an expiring contract for Tyson Chandler and $50 more million. Hey, I’m not criticizing those moves, but it sort of undermines that argument. Had they gotten $3 million, the max allowed and certainly enough to sign a free player, from the Pacers I’d believe it. But they reportedly got 250K, which won’t even get you a rookie playing for the minimum.
Flip Murray by the system. He played last season for less than a $1 million because he felt he was worth more than the $3 million per year deal the Sonics were offering. Then he was sold to the Cavs and came in and helped turn around the end of the season. Some were thinking he was in line for a $25-$30 million deal as a starter. Then the Cavs drafted Shannon Brown at his position and let him walk. He signed a two-year deal worth less than $4 million in Detroit.
The Knicks by themselves. I think with the talent on the roster and a new up-tempo style they could really win like 35 games this season. Which, by the way, only hurts them because it may convince them to stay the course. But let me get this straight. Including luxury tax penalties, they traded away expiring contracts to take on like an extra $100 million in Steve Francis and Jalen Rose and have just signed Jared Jefferies to an offer sheet that will cost them $60 million in real money if Washington doesn’t match.
Yet they have a young, athletic big man with significant upside in Jackie Butler, who they actually found the old fashioned way in the CBA, and they don’t match a three-year $7 million offer sheet from the Spurs? Talk about being penny wise and dollar foolish. I mean the fact that the always thrifty and intelligent Spurs wanted Butler should’ve been enough to make them consider what they had. Heck, they could have always traded him in a bad deal to get an average player with a massive salary down the road per usual.
The Raptors by God. They thought they had John Salmons wrapped for $23 million over five years. Then he backed out, saying isn’t wasn’t where God wanted him to be. Then a day later he signed for $25.5 million over five years with the Sacramento Kings. Now, as you know, Sac is no Eden, but they were offering more money, are a playoff team, have better weather, and Cali has a more favorable income tax structure than Canada. Simply Divine!
Of course, I could be wrong about all this, I’m sleep deprived.
July 31st, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Nice post. Always glad to hear about your sex life (indirectly of course). Getting anxious about the Gooden situation. Just want to know for some reason.
K
August 1st, 2006 at 6:09 pm
These sorts of things always seem to happen to you….what type of places does the ABJ have you staying in? You mentioned Room 437 so I guess it can’t be a Motel 6 if it is taller than 2 floors.
Anyhow, I genuinly feel bad for Flip Murray. Had he not tried to one hand a rebound in game 6 he might still be a Cavalier. Whoever is giving that dude advice needs to be committed.
Do you get any feeling at all that the Cavs are working on any type of sign & trade or roster addition? Things have been awfully quiet and regardless of what happens with Gooden they still need a big man and a guard.
Keep up the good work, BW…
The Guru
Check me out at http://www.thesportsguru.com/blog
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:18 am
God wants John Salmons to make $2 million more dollars over the next 5 years within a friendlier tax structure!
Outstanding work, BW.
August 2nd, 2006 at 3:09 pm
man, LBJ is off to NY/brooklyn for sure now! nike is gonna be breathing down his neck hard now. why do i say that? have you guys seen the schedule released yesterday? the cavs are only on national teevee 33 times, the most any one team can be on the tube. but think about it for a minute, and i know tucker will back me up on this, IMAGINE the national tv exposure LBJ would get playing for the knicks or nets!!!
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:20 pm
In this day and age “national exposure” is a term used by big markets to scare small markets into thinking there still is something to it. Whether LeBron plays in Cleveland, New York, LA or even Timbuktu, ESPN, SI, CNN, and a hundred newpapers are going to be there. The internet allows instant gratification, and thanks to my ESPNMobile phone I can get the highlights as they happen.
The only reason LeBron would leave is if he didn’t feel he could win. Make no mistake, if that ever did happen it’s on LeBron as well, he’d be admitting he couldn’t get it done in C-Town.
Check Out http://www.thesportsguru.com/blog
August 2nd, 2006 at 9:24 pm
just saw over the wire that reghi is out at cavs play-by-play guy. in is former cleveland sports guy mcloud…he had been doing pistons games, i understand. man, that gilbert loves him some detroit, eh?
in all seriousness, i hope windy will have some more info in the ABJ or here on the blog on why the cavs made this move, as reghi still had 2 years left on his deal. the cavs bought him out, evidently…
please join me in praying that scott williams is NOT retained either!!!
August 4th, 2006 at 7:10 am
KJ, you still don’t “get it,” not even close. Oh, well. I guess some people never will until it actually happens.
Be that as it may, notwithstanding the 0% chance that James will be in Cleveland five years from now, I can now say, without any semblance of doubt, that yesterday was my single greatest day as a Cleveland sports witness since the day I saw the Browns win the title in 1964. The firing of Michael Reghi means I’ll now finally be able to watch TV with the sound on! Just when you’re absolutely convinced that the notion of God is totally bogus, He throws a curveball.
August 4th, 2006 at 7:16 am
I was totally wrong about Salmons’ agent. I thought he was a clown for rejecting the Raptors’ offer. As it turned out, the man is the freakin’ Salesman of the Year. Amazing.
August 4th, 2006 at 7:22 am
wow. what a smackdown of me (oh, and everyone else on this board, btw). man, when you give such a persuasive arguement as i “don’t get it” well, i know when i’ve been bested…
really, tucker, you don’t seem to get it. you’re time is over. gone. you’re old and bitter and you have nothing to offer in the sports talk arena. it’s ok. i’m sure when you were young you really burned up the lines with pete franklin and sindelar. but those days have passsed. it’s time to have a little dignity and step aside. there’s a new paradigm and you just “don’t get it.”
but it’s ok. i’m sure sheldon ocker has a blog *somewhere* and hey, good news! the browns still seemed to be “cursed!” you could go and find a browns on-line forum where you would only be the 25th most negative and stupid poster! give it shot, eh?
oh, and proving the old adage that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while, you are absolutely right about reghi. but the job is only half done. they must get rid of williams as well…
August 4th, 2006 at 7:32 am
You’re absolutely right kj, I am old and bitter. Guilty as charged. But that still doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to your apology in 2011.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:21 am
Brian,
sorry we woke you up… Baby tends to get a little noisy. Next time just bang on the wall or just come on over and join in.
SJ
August 4th, 2006 at 11:53 am
i’ll be glad to do so, if what you claim comes true. but i seem to recall, and so do a lot of other people on this here comments section, that you said months ago that he wouldn’t sign an extension. of course, you then claimed it was everybody else’s fault like isiah, stern- i dunno, tony soprano?- that LBJ couldn’t go to NY like you claimed he would do at the FIRST opportunity, not the 2nd or 3rd, etc.
look, i have grown tired of this back and forth with you and i’m sure others concur. you weaseled out your last prediction and you continue to post ridiculous things. now, true it was my fault as i brought up the fact that LBJ will be on national TV the MAXIMUM 33 times, just to make another point that he can’t get much more NATIONAL exposure if he’s in the northeast market.
i would be willing to engage you more on this point but you have constantly refused to actually address the points i and others have brought up. it’s frustrating and i am done with it ’til ‘11. here’s hoping you’ll spare us ’til then as well.
August 4th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
here’s a new article about dajuan wagner trying to come back from his medical problems…i thought it might be of interest to some of you here:
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/15195609.htmm
August 5th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Uhh…what I said is he wouldn’t sign an extension if he waited until 2008. You conveniently left out that point. And when it became clear in February that the Manhattan Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets situations clearly were not going to be in his favor by that date, I said he would sign the extension in 2006. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, kj.
And on another subject of never letting the facts getting in the way of a good story, this whole Reghi thing bothers me. If there’s ever been a recent example of the local media taking care of their own, this is it.
Clearly, Reghi treated others in the media with a great amount respect during his tenure. Fine, I have no problem with that. However, what I’m reading in a multitude of PD and BJ columns are about how the guy was supposedly given the royal shaft…never mind that he was fully compensated for the two years left on his contract. Furthermore, from what I can tell, Cavs fans from Cleveland to the tip of South Africa to the darkest corners of Asia have been univerally celebrating with tailgating parties.
If the softie Northeast Ohio sports media wants to send each other love letters, I’d really prefer they do it in private. They rarely criticize anything publicly, yet when it comes to covering the back of one of their brethren, that’s when they suddenly find the courage to open up their big yaps.
August 5th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
“Be that as it may, notwithstanding the 0% chance that James will be in Cleveland five years from now.”
Stand up comedy seems to be your forte. So why are you wasting your time commenting on a blog? I expect to see you on Comedy Central very soon making thousands of people laugh AT you in person like you do here on Brian’s blog. I mean, I don’t want just us readers of the Cavs blog to benefit from the many clownish comments that give us a good laugh at your expense. Of course, you think you’re being serious, which just adds to the element.
I’m telling you. Comedy night with Alan Tucker. Coming soon to Comedy Central! I mean, if it’s anything like Tucker’s posts on here, I won’t mind that Dave Chappelle has been gone for a year now.
August 5th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
The same guy who said that LeBron won’t be a Cav after his rookie contract is now demanding apolgies in advance of LeBron leaving in 2011. Classic. Just classic. Please put your ignorance and unintentional comedy to use, Alan Tucker.
August 6th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
tucker you say: “Uhh…what I said is he wouldn’t sign an extension if he waited until 2008. You conveniently left out that point. And when it became clear in February that the Manhattan Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets situations clearly were not going to be in his favor by that date, I said he would sign the extension in 2006. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, kj.”
umm, how dumb do you think we all are, alan? way back when, you said LBJ wouldn’t sign an extension. PERIOD. THEN, you AMENDED it after it became clear that NONE of your wild conspiracy theories had the LEAST bit chance of coming true.
don’t let facts get in the way of your stories, alan.
again, it pains me to say it but you are absolutely right about the reaction of the local media to the reghi firing…but it’s late summer and the indians suck worse than you do and the browns just started camp, so it makes for a good ‘tempest in a teapot’ on the sport pages for a couple of days.
August 6th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
ok, just in case some of you might be swayed by LBJ’s lunch with jay-z and his nike “bonus” let me give you some further food for thought.
the cavs are NOT the cleveland cavs, ok? they are the cleveland/akron/canton/columbus/pittsburgh/cincy/northern kentucky cavs. sound silly? well, it shouldn’t be if ya use your head. there are no nba teams in ohio besides the cavs and the cavs games are broadcast in columbus and pittsburgh. that is why gilbert bought this team cuz it’s a REGIONAL franchise. guess what happens if you add up the tv market shares of cleveland/ak/can/columbus and pitts.? it comes to 3,602,439 tv homes. you know where that places that combined market in the chart of nielson tv market share? THIRD! AHEAD OF CHICAGO! only behind l.a. and n.y.c. and again, that doesn’t include cincy even…
ya wanna know where miami and denver are in relation to cleveland in tv market share? BEHIND cleveland! yes, miami! cleveland is 16, miami, 17th and denver 18th. now why aren’t there tons of articles and espn special reports on wade and anthony bolting for nyc? hell, anthony won a national championship in upstate n.y and played in the garden multiple times.
the numbers don’t lie. all this talk about cleve. being too small is just bulls***. it’s all perception not based on numbers and facts.
mark it down, LBJ signs a HUGE extention 2 or 3 years from now with the cavs. it will make him the most money and by that time he will have most likely won a championship.
August 7th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
When did this become forum and not a blog? Entertainment it is no doubt…
August 7th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
i’m sorry if my posts have been too frequent or too long. i just wanted to provide solid fact-based evidence for cavs fans to note about LBJ and his future before they succumb to the kind of bitter thoughts best expressed by tucker on this site. i do realize that i may be wearing out my welcome and people should not hesitate to tell me if i am.
sorry again,
kj
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
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