Bucks 105, Cavs 102
–First off, just a tremendous shot by Michael Redd. He hits as 28-footer — the box scored said 27 but I walked it off on the court on my way back from the Cavs locker room and I say 28, maybe 29 — and leaves no time. Nothing you can do there but shake his hand. Big-time play.
–Second off, the Cavs didn’t lose the game on that play. Two issues. As was discussed at halftime, they got all out of sorts in the first half and let Milwaukee have 10 free baskets on fastbreaks. In the second half they close the floodgate, but insead of having a cushion they were behind. Second, you could see how uncomfortable everyone was in the fourth. It started out with promise, with LeBron sitting they extended the lead from three points to seven points and I was writing it like it was going to be a win. Then LeBron comes in and the Cavs get steamrolled. The old Cavs had their flaws, but they did know how to finish. This team has a learning curve to deal with now. There was miscommunication and tentative play. Anderson Varejao and Ben Wallace were throwing it out of the post, LeBron was committing unforced turnovers and Wally Szczerbiak couldn’t buy a shot.
–Third off, the officiating was uneven. The Cavs were openly complaining about getting just 14 free throws to the Bucks’ 37. Not only were there bad calls, which happens because everyone is human, in my opinion there were guess calls which is just no good for anyone. This has been a bad week for these three officials: Brian Forte, Pat Fraher and Mike Callahan. The other night in Seattle, Kobe Bryant got hot at Forte and was tossed and then Phil Jackson ripped Forte, saying he had a “red ass” and suggested that the only reason the rookie was in the league was because his father, Joe Forte, is a veteran ref. You can read about it here. So my guess is these guys will have a tough review session coming up. But the worst move of the night, in my opinion, was in the third quarter after LeBron threw down a dunk. The net got stuck up in the rim and Fraher, a diminutive guy, attempted to leap up and free it. He whiffed. Ouch.
–I’m just doing my job reporting about the officiating crew and their troubles. However, it was not why the Cavs lost the game. The fouls kept Milwaukee close but the Cavs fumbled it away in the end. No excuses. No, this was not one of my 5 percent games where the officials played a role in the outcome, sorry to disappoint you.
–It may never be remembered, but LeBron’s driving layup to tie the game with five seconds left was pretty impressive. Over two Bucks, just soaring and with his left hand. In fact, the Cavs were pretty strong in the last 30 seconds just to get to a tie. But they didn’t deserve the win, honestly.
–Karma is a funny thing. This is the second time this season the Cavs have been beated at the buzzer (in Utah by Deron Williams in November) but they’ve survived last-second shots too. How about DeShawn Stevenson Friday night, he missed. Last night he made a game-winner in New Orleans.
–Damon Jones was 4-of-4 on 3-pointers tonight. He’s currently having his best shooting streak as a Cav.
Recap:
Pregame
Starting lineups
Cavs: Delonte West, Devin Brown, LeBron James, Ben Wallace, Anderson Varejao
Bucks: Mo Williams, Michael Redd, Desmond Mason, Charlie Villaneuva, Andrew Bogut
–For the first time this season Zydrunas Ilgauskas is going to miss a game, he has a bad cold. So does athletic trainer Max Benton and they are back at the hotel in bed. They are going to meet the Cavs at the airport to fly to Boston.
–So Anderson Varejao is back after missing 13 games and is going right into the starting lineup. He will play 5, Wallace will stay at the 4. At the outset, that means guarding Villaneuva. But he may got back and forth depending on how Varejao feels and how many minutes he can play. Just how the big man rotation will work when everybody is healthy is still a mystery, but it will have to wait at least another day.
–Let’s see how the Cavs handle having two bigs who aren’t great scorers together on the floor. Most of the time, there has been a scorer/shooter in there most of the time whether it was Drew Gooden, Donyell Marshall or even LeBron at the 4.
–The Bucks think they are turning a bit of a corner and are gaining some confidence. They are probably looking forward to this game as a chance to get the new look Cavs.
Halftime — Bucks 57, Cavs 53
–No way the Cavs should be losing this game. They not a nice lead early and then they got very lazy. It showed in their transition defense, Milwaukee has 20 fastbreak points.
–The Bucks are not shooting the ball well and the Cavs are scoring without much problem, which should mean a comfy lead. But Milwaukee is 16-of-16 at the foul line and has not committed a turnover. Which means they played a pretty good half. The Cavs are playing pretty good defense in the half court but it isn’t earning them much.
–Wally Szczberiak’s shot looks very flat to me right now. Maybe it is always like that, he has a weird motion and lands in a wide stance. Still, he doesn’t seem to be in good rhythm.
–LeBron has made some unreal plays in this game already. Some of the baskets he’s made in traffic have been sick and he made a pass to Damon Jones for a 3 after the ball was tipped. He just slapped it out of mid-air over to him. He’s been a highlight reel yet nothing really flashy.
–The Cavs are still in honeymoon mode, they need to buckle down and get serious. They should not lose this game. Let’s see if the attitude is different in the second half.
Postgame
Stars
Mo Williams, 37 points, seven rebounds, six assists
Michael Redd, 25 points
LeBron James, 35 points, six assists
Quotes
Mike Brown: “I question a jump-shooting team getting 37 free throws and LeBron gets five and we get a total of 14 for the game. I’ll have to go back and look at the tape, maybe we just fouled that much.”
LeBron: “We made a plays and had a chance to win but that big shot cost us. We’re going to need a few weeks to get everything in motion, sometimes we’re out of place.”
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The Bucks have been playing better and are trying – trying – to make a push for the playoffs, so it should be a good game. It should be fun watching West v Mo Williams if it goes like that. Plus Andy is back so that’s cool too. Peace!
Brian,
What do you expect to happen to the Cavs last 2 open roster spots after the 10 day contracts expire of the NBDL guys?
Are the Cavs targeting any players to fill those spots?
Varejao-Wallace on offense can’t be worse than the Memphis twin towers attack we just saw with Kwame Brown and Jason Collins can it? OK, that’s not a high standard of excellence, but neither is Milwaukee’s Ragin’ Asians frontcourt of Yi and Bogut.
Oh – and I had a question too: I’ve been wondering for several years now what is up with Snow, but this year is especially pathetic. The unbelievable happened and he actually was able to get worse. 6 mil is alot of dough for a cheerleader, no? I was wondering if we can buy him out now that we are over the cap, are we waiting to trade him this summer as he will finally be an ‘expiring’ contract? What can we expect to get for him in a trade? Are we hoping he regains his peak form and goes 1-7 in big games instead of 0-6? I don’t get it, seems like if he were gone we could probably still pick up a decent PG cheap. You see Cassell and Stoudamire being bought out and going to play elsewhere, to name a few. Isn’t it likely a D-leaguer would be more valuable than this dude?
I read that West had more assists the other day than any other Cav this season, besides the king??? What’s up with that? With Damon coming on some (finally) and West being handed the starter role, and Gibson due back someday, why is Snow here again????!?
I had no idea Z and Max were so close.
Not long before AV was injured it seems like Mike Brown was really touting his improved shooting, even going so far to say AV was automatic from 12 or 15 feet, or something to that effect.
I have an idea that’s one reason they let Gooden go and maybe they’ll let Sideshow shoot some now. He might pair up with Big Ben just fine.
maybe one day the refs will respect the cavs….i’m sorry but did the refs take the off season off instead of working on their whistle blowing or something they are looking more and more like college refs, wow are they bad
Could this be a 5% game?
hey jobu, australia is a continent. therefore, bogut is not asian.
Best point play I’ve seen on the Cavs in years?
Jason Kidd who?!?!?
my god, did Delonte tell Damon that it’s OK to get assists or something. He has like more than he’s had in his entire life
This whole referring crew should be fired. THey are terrible.
Refs 1 vs Cavs 0 (again)
24 – 16 in fouls and 37 – 14 in free throws – refereeing in this leagues SUCKS!
Windy, this HAS to be one of your 5% games.
The FT disparity, the travel by Redd, etc.
After the trade, my biggest concern was perimeter defense. We just got lit up for 62 by Williams and Redd. I wasn’t able to watch the game, was it as bad as the box score says?
Thoughts on tonight’s game:
1. It is bound to happen with 41 road games but the Cavs got badly homered tonight….I mean it was really BAD.
2. You can tell it’s going to take Mike Brown a little while to figure out how to manage a true rotation. I thought he kept hot hands like D. Jones, Devin Brown, and Joe Smith on the bench for too many minutes while the Cavs offense was struggling at times in the second half. I also thought he waited one too many possessions to go offense/defense late in the game. You can’t blame him after 2 games. He’s probably not used to managing minutes for this many guys.
3. Congrats to Michael Redd who probably hit the high water mark of his career tonight. Great decision to stay in Milwaukee a couple of years ago. Really, I’m glad that has worked out so well for you. Your Bucks are really starting to make some noise in the strong Eastern Conference. I hope the extra cash was worth it because your team and your career are both irrelevant.
4. More Joe Smith, less Ben Wallace. Wallace can’t protect the rim like he used to which makes his lack of offense a lot less tolerable. At the same time, his uncanny ability to NOT be Larry Hughes makes him infinitely more valuable.
5. Szczerbiak’s all out of sync on his shot but his spacing might be even worse. You can tell he has no idea where he’s supposed to be on the floor yet. He ought to be spotting up for open shots away from the ball. Also, I don’t like the idea of running an offense that calls on him to create his own shot when Lebron is off the floor. We can do better than that.
6. I’m not sure I like Damon Jones bringing the ball up. The way he is shooting, he should just be running straight to his spot. Let someone else bring it up.
7. The Cavs got outscored by 22 at the line tonight. That was the difference. We can all thank the Zebras for that one. What a joke.
Patience….
Putrid officiating and Wally’s horrible shot selection lost this one for the Cavs.
The Cavs got completely homered tonight, and that sucks. On a related note, I hope that the crappy bucks enjoy winning 37 games a year in their crappy arena for the rest of eternity. They got every single concievable call and every possible break and still had to hit a miracle 30 footer at the buzzer AT HOME to win. Nice team Milwaukee, nice team.
I am not one to usually harp on the refs, but that was far and away the most one sided game I’ve seen in a few years. The touch fouls and bad calls, coupled with the Bucks great free throw shooting were the turning points in this game. That was a game the Cavs should have won. Not a good way to head into Boston.
Does anyone else get frustrated by Mike Brown’s attitude towards refs when calls are going the other teams way? I don’t understand why he doesn’t stand up for his players. I’m not necessarily of the opinion that this always makes a difference, but at the very least it makes the refs think about their calls. When Brown first started out, I thought it was due to him being a rookie coach, but his ho-hum attitude has stayed the same. Show a little passion Mike! Pick up a T every once in awhile.
Yeah, Redd traveled on that last play…..he slipped just like D-West did 3 times, LeBron did once, and AV did once. Is it that hard for the sweat boys to do their job? And do the refs not even have enough guts to call an obvious travel when the game is on the line? Forte’s kid sucks.
just restin for tomorrow, boys. Fight time!
I don’t think our perimeter defense was so bad so much as Redd and Williams were lights out. Those guys weren’t hitting open jumpers or getting layups. Redd was hitting crazy off balance hand in face jumpers and Williams was hitting floaters and crazy pull up jumpers.
And free throws…
I hated losing this one tonight and I hated watching Mo Williams get 37 points. But this is only game 2 with the new guys so patience is definitely a virtue. Szerbiak’s missed pass to LeBron that led to a backcourt violation is a reminder that these guys just don’t know each other yet. All four of the new guys are a major upgrade from what we had. I have to blink to realize that we got four quality NBA players for Drewbeard and a pile of junk. I understand that Chicago hated Ben as much as we hated Hughes. But in Seattle, they have to be looking at Marshall and Newble at the end of their bench and wonder “what the heck did we just do?” Right now I’m not cringing when any Cavalier comes on the court. I couldn’t say that a week ago. The next 18 months with this group should be very exciting.
Thoughts on the Cavs loss to the Bucks in Milwaukee:
- Do Cavs win this game if Ira Newble is still on the team? I say yes.
- Give Redd all the credit in the world. Sometimes you make ridiculous 3’s at the buzzer when you can’t even see the rim. And I’ll never blame Redd for choosing Milwaukee over Cleveland. Milwaukee drafted him and gave him a chance to play in the NBA, there was no reason he should leave them.
- Terrible game by Szczerbiak. He has absolutely no conscience when it comes to taking quick shots outside the offense. Even Larry Hughes wasn’t this selfish about taking his own shots. Maybe he’s still feeling his way out, but he certainly isn’t shy. 2-9 from three?
- I have been pleasantly surprised with Andy’s development on the offensive end this year. That being said, there was no way he was going to come in and be productive in his first game in a month. Which meant that he couldn’t be out there with Ben Wallace down the stretch. Mike Brown was having some big rotation problems. Heck, one time he substituted Damon Jones for Ben Wallace when the Cavs were on defense. For now, Wallace and Varejao can’t be on the floor together for extended runs. Wait for Andy to get back into rhythm, then see how it looks.
- I’m in the minority tonight, but I don’t think the refs made the difference. The poor perimeter defense and the utter lack of post offense doomed the Cavs tonight.
- The Cavs are getting slap-happy on rebounds lately, and Ben Wallace isn’t helping. Grab the damn ball guys.
Go Cavs. And thanks NBA, for giving the Cavs 9 back-to-backs in February and March, 8 of which have the second game on the road. 4 of which have them changing time zones.
Mike C.
Funny to hear Cavs fans criticize refs for not calling a travel, when LeBron is the “KING” of taking the extra step.
Brian, why did Brown leave AV and Wallace on the floor together in the 4th quarter when it was clear neither one could score? Will Coach Brown continue to do this..I hope not. At least Z will be back apparently tomorrow night.
“Have been beated”? Does this guy know English?
mike, you are one of the better posters on here but for you to say “the refs didn’t make the difference” tonight is, quite frankly, beyond ludicrous. it’s almost approaching tucker territory in it’s disregard for the facts.
and i’ll further disagree with you that wally had a bad game. he had a pretty good game, IMO just not a great shooting game. and to compare a guy who shoots 50% for his career to “all roads lead to 40%” hughes is almost offensive!
but anyway, i’m not very upset about this one. the bucks had all the calls and bounces go their way *and* lights-out shooting from williams and *still* needed a near-miracle 3 from redd to win it. i KNOW the new-look cavs will never go 4 minutes without scoring again this season, like they did at one point in the 4th quarter. if you can’t see what a world of difference this team is versus the last, well, you don’t know basketball very much.
btw, i agree with most on here that the one thing this trade exposes, again, is the one real flaw brown has as a coach and that’s rotations. he seems to always be looking to minimize his rotation rather than finding combos that work. i also feel he went too long with LBJ on the bench in the 4th. if he would’ve substituted LBJ about a minute earlier, we have him on the court with an 8-point lead rather than a 4-point, which is what it was when LBJ returned. but it’s only the second game, so i’ll cut him a little slack. oh, and cut wallace some slack. he played pretty well again, i thought and was the victim of some truly egregious non-calls tonight…
oh, and only windy could mention the bucks had 16 FT’s at the half and not a single other thing about it. way to bury your head in the sand, yet again, cavs beat *REPORTER*!
Mike C, I think some of your observations are pretty far off. First of all, Ira Newble stinks and the fact that you even suggested that his presence would have put the Cavs over the top undermines the rest of your thoughts. Now I can’t take you seriously.
Second, I will blame Michael Redd and mock him until the day he retires. The guy is from Columbus and had a chance to come back to Ohio to form what would have undoubtedly been the best tandem in the NBA. Instead of freezing his butt off in Wisconsin playing for a 3rd rate Bucks franchise, he could be be preparing to win a ring (if not “another” ring) in Cleveland. The Bucks took him 43rd overall so its not like they took some huge leap of faith when they drafted him. He owed them nothing. The guy took the money which is fine but don’t tell me not to mock him. He’s a very good player but now his prime will be meaningless when he had it set up perfectly to be a key figure on title teams in his home state.
Finally, you are in the minority on the refs because you are wrong. They blew the game tonight. Tim Donaghy would have been embarrassed by that performance. Say what you want about perimeter defense and post offense but if the officiating was just bad instead of an utter disgrace, Mike Redd’s 30 footer is just shrinking the margin.
@Douglar:
LeBron gets no more special treatment than any (yes, any) other player in the NBA. Everyone gets 1/2-1 extra step when they’re going to the rim. Not only that, but people just single out LeBron because of his ridiculously long stride. Watch him closely with a nonbiased perspective, and you’ll see that he’s not taking as many steps as you think. Also, notice that he normally gets a good leap during his final dribble just before he grabs the ball to start his run at the hoop.
I gotta disagree. Redd got the money and got to be the man. What star, in their prime, wants to play the role of LeBron’s jockey for a helluva lot less money? If he wants to eventually play for some team that has a chance to win a title, he’ll eventually get that opportunity anyway. Besides, according to some dufus who posted on Wikipedia, “Michael’s favorite meal is spaghetti and meatballs.”
Not in your 5% Brian? It sure as HELL is in mine. I was fuming watching this entire game. Screaming and throwing things at the TV. If any of you would like, you can come to my place and we can watch every call on the DVR and I will point out AT LEAST 10 against the Cavs that were shooting fouls where there was absolutely no contact or contact was well before the shot but the refs gave “continuation” when it was not deserved. Yes that’s right…phantom calls. It was like watching a team full of D. Wades out there. All defenders at least 4 feet from the shooter and a shooting foul somehow called.
I can also count at least 10 no calls in favor of the Bucks. Among other things like LeBron being fouled CONSTANTLY, on consecutive posessions Ben got hacked causing him to flub, of all things, DUNKS and no foul was called. He even was on the floor on the second one for Chrissakes. This was the worst officiating I have seen in a loooooong time, maybe some of the worst ever.
Now unless you’re math retarded, you can add things up and see that that’s a possible 40 f*cking point difference in favor of the Cavs (realistically 30 or so) that disappeared in all the whistle mishap. THESE REFS DESERVE TO BE HANGED. END OF STORY. If you can’t see that you shouldn’t be watching basketball. This game should have been a blowout.
Alan t:
The money point is obvious but I will pose the following question: Do you think Mike Redd would be more famous and garner more respect as the “star” of the vaunted 2000’s Milwaukee Bucks or as the guy scoring the easiest 25 a night you could imagine filling up wide open jumpers for the NBA champion (with him on the roster) Cavs?
jesus h. christ, windy, you say that “The fouls kept Milwaukee close but the Cavs fumbled it away in the end.” really? the fouls “kept it close?” ya think, sherlock? that’s the WHOLE POINT!! the game wouldn’t have been close if the game was called normally!!
listen, the cavs out shot them, out rebounded them, out assisted them and only had 13 TO’s, clearly not a ton or anything. yet, they lost. now, when one looks at the stats of the game, what would one see that would give the bucks the edge, hmm? the 30+-odd attempts from the line!!! if not for that, the cavs win!!
i don’t care about “no excuses” or any of that sports/business motivational BS. i care about facts and figures. and the fact is that the bucks got ALL the calls and even the TV guys pointed to five HORRIBLE calls. so, if those mere 5 calls don’t go the bucks way, cavs win. period. why is that so hard to comprehend???
KJ, two words – “politically correct”
Windy probably thinks different, but can’t really say the refs threw the game, otherwise he’ll be getting a call from the Commish…
alan t.,
You think Scottie Pippen would trade those years in his prime (and rings) as Jordan’s jockey to have been ‘the man’ on some fifth rate team? No. Because Pippen was a winner who made plenty of money in his playing days.
Nobody will remember Michael Redd as a career Buck.
FYI: Z was out with a respiratory infection.
If Mike Brown complained about the officiating after the game, it had to be terrible.
Also, I’ve got to disagree about Brown and rotations. He tries everything early in the season, and will try everything now with the upheavel, but eventually he’ll find a pattern he likes.
He’s proven to be able to find the right mix even when he’s juggling about 8 limited players and specialists, which is why the Cavs have been able to beat teams like the Pistons in the playoffs. He’s very good at it in my estimation.
You have to take a few things into account with Redd:
1) he was a bargain for a number of years (he outperformed his contract), so he wasn’t making big time money before
2) The Cavs hadn’t been to the playoffs yet. LeBron hadn’t really showed the dominance that he’s capable of at the time Redd was a free agent. LeBron could’ve easily been the next McGrady or Carter.
3) Redd didn’t just stay in Milwaukee for more money. He stayed in Milwaukee for A LOT more money (like $20 million or so).
4) It’s all moot anyways, cause the Cavs are going to trade their expiring contracts for Redd and Bobby Simmons next year.
A little perspective after a night’s sleep:
THE REFS STOLE THE GAME . . . And I was thinking to myself that if, prior to this trade, we’d had to play a road game without Z and Boobie, I would’ve said Lebron has to score 50. The silver lining for me, I guess, is that with everything going against the Cavs, the still had the depth and talent to outplay the Bucks. It’s going to be so strange to see a 10 man rotation when everyone is back healthy.
Usually, I think it’s lame to blame officials but last night was just awful. Non calls, touch fouls, phantom fouls… the whole gamut of ineptitude. But still, that’s a bad loss. When you’ve got Jerry Maguire shooting 5-18 (most of the misses wide open looks) you almost long for the days of the Arm Pantyhose Bandit.
I agree with the majority of you about the Officiating. However, I would never have known that without reading the blog.
Unfortunately I had to watch the game with the Bucks announcers calling the game (including the awesome Scott Williams). Boy am I glad he is gone. Anyways, all they kept saying was “Look at LeBron get all the calls, When are they going to call the game even, ….”
They made it sound like it was lopsided the other way. Didnt even occur to me that it was the other way until this morning.
One other thing, I thought Wally played great defense on Redd that last posession. Forced Redd to make a tougher shot without fouling. My question is though, why didnt they full press after LeBron tied the game. They just let Redd dribble to half court before getting a body on him
Old talking point douglar. They took that play away from James and rightly so. No, the Cavs got homered last night. And like somebody else said, it still took a ridiculous three pointer for the Bucks to win.
- The Cavs are hurting for perimeter defense, and that was obvious last night. I found myself wondering if Sasha Pavlovic will be back soon, because even he has shown flashes of defense better than what we saw from West and Szczerbiak last night. Say what you will about Newble, but he was able to cause problems on the defensive end, and the same cannot be said of anyone currently on the roster. LeBron has shown flashes down the stretch in games, but he can’t sustain it for a full game. Which means the Cavs are going to struggle against teams with two good guards (like Milwaukee and Detroit).
- Hopefully they won’t have the same problem when they are only facing one good guard, like tonight when they head to Boston and have to deal with Ray Allen. But if we find out tonight that the Cavs have no way to defend opposing shooting guards, we could be in for a tough postseason.
- I would like to see more minutes with Damon Jones and Delonte West together. I think the Cavs need to find out if West can guard shooting guards on occasion, because that’s a likely situation when Gibson comes back.
- Anything to keep Szczerbiak’s minutes under control would be nice. I think that Szczerbiak can be a strong contributor to the team, but I don’t think he can do it as a starter playing 35 minutes a night. Apparently getting announced with the starters last night made Wally think he was back in his Minnesota prime. Both Szczerbiak and Wallace need to keep their egos in check and dedicate themselves to playing better fundamental basketball, and the fact that they are getting handed big minutes right off the bat isn’t helping.
- Pippen *HATED* being the second fiddle in Chicago. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n10_v218/ai_15787374
- No kidding, home team announcing crews are biased?
Mike C.
C’mon, Mike C. That article doesn’t tell me anything except that Pippen wasn’t about to play second fiddle to Kukoc. I distinctly remember Pippen pretty much melting down when he had to be the man in Chicago. That his Jordanless teams went to the playoffs anyway is a testament to how gifted Pippen was as a player. Paired with Jordan, he was winning titles en route to being one of the great players in history. I don’t think he has a problem with that legacy.
There are two lessons to be learned from situations like Michael Redd’s:
1. If you are an NBA team, don’t pay alpha-dog bird rights max money to a good but not elite player. Milwaukee shouldn’t be real surprised that they aren’t winning playoff series with Michael Redd as their ace. I’m sure Orlando will be scratching their heads pretty hard in a couple of years when they can’t get out of the East because Rashard Lewis’s monster contract is hanging around their necks like a noose. Those deals, which are essentially above the max because they are re-signs or sign and trades, should be reserved for the handful of top-level stars in the league…the Lebron, Kobe, Nash, Howard, Duncan, etc.
2. If you are a Michael Redd, Shawn Marion, or Rashard Lewis type player, make sure that you are honest with yourself and that the money is worth it because you are going to get CRUSHED under the pressure of trying to carry a team by yourself as the fans turn on you for making superstar money without producing wins. For some guys, maybe its worth it. But again, I think if you really asked enough of the second level players who won championships playing next to superstars, they would tell you that they wouldn’t have had it any other way. I know its easy for me to say Michael Redd should’ve turned down the extra $20 million but when it’s all said and done, my guess is he would have been a lot happier playing for a winner in his prime.
Obviously, I’m just guessing on a lot of this but its an interesting topic nonetheless.
FWIW, i would *not* put howard in that league yet of LBJ, kobe, nash, duncan, etc. he’s proven nothing really yet.
Good points biff.
It’s difficult for me to understand the perspective that kind of money creates. If I were weighing those kinds of offers, it’s possible I would realize I’d be happier winning championships, playing close to home, etc., yet still take the bigger deal because I’d like to help the family more.
That extra $20 million (much less after taxes) could be the difference in being able to help all your siblings do what they want in life, or the difference in making sure your family is set permanently rather than for a generation or two. It’s too much money to responsibly pass up, really.
KJ, I put Howard in that category because he is already playing at an extremely high level and next to Lebron, his ceiling is higher than anyone else’s in the league. Therefore, he’s worth as much as league rules say you can pay him.
Larry d, you make a very good point about taxes. The contract difference is more like 60% of $20 million…Practically nothing right! In all seriousness, it is still a ton of money but at the same time, when the dollar figures are that high, is it really going to change a person’s lifestyle? For smart players, I agree, it could be the difference between setting up your children for life and setting up your great-grandchildren for life. However, my better instincts tell me that for the majority of NBA players, the actual difference is a few extra Maybachs and gold plated toilets.
I’m reminded of the famous Patrick Ewing quote:
“We might make a lot of money but we also spend a lot of money.”
Whatever, it’s all irrelevant. You can’t try to bring financial reason into a league that has paid Keith Van Horn over $100 million in his career and where players get paid the full value of their contracts just to go away and sign new contracts with other teams. Sports in general defies every aspect of financial logic that governs other businesses.
larry d., I have to agree. The blog took a rather uncomfortable turn with this para:
“For the first time this season Zydrunas Ilgauskas is going to miss a game, he has a bad cold. So does athletic trainer Max Benton and they are back at the hotel in bed.”