September 14, 2011

'We just took eight steps back'

09/14/2011 - 3:16am

"If it's about small-market teams not profiting, if the owners are really using that as a bargaining tool, if you're really concerned about it, then why aren't you profit-sharing like the other leagues are doing?" Celtics center Jermaine O'Neal asked after a workout at the Impact Basketball facility in Las Vegas Tuesday, after word had spread about the latest impasse in the labor talks.

"So do we accept a deal that totally butchers our game? Because what they don't understand, if you take out mid-tier deals and say, 'Fend for bare minimum at the bottom,' they'll be individualizing our game so severely."

That's something I hadn't thought about. Take away guarantees, turn most rosters into extremes of max guys and minimum guys, and you've got a squad full of guys trying to get their numbers to get paid. I saw that dynamic in play with the Clippers before, when Donald Sterling didn't extend the contracts of any of his free-agents-to-be and it was every man for himself.

Baseball and football teams benefit from players in contract years. They get more home runs, more tackles, more wins. In basketball, selfish goals destroy teams.

Guaranteed, salary cap-eating contracts from players who are injured or underperforming can wreck teams as well, of course.(...)

On Monday night I asked if the latest set of owner-union meetings actually represented progress, and as a demonstration I took one step closer to a wall some 40 yards away.

"That's progress," Charlotte Bobcats forward Corey Maggette said, taking the most literal definition he could.

On Tuesday, Maggette wasn't feeling the same way.

"We just took eight steps back," he said.

"Someone needs to compromise," Maggette said. "The owners have to compromise.

"We need to have revenue sharing with the teams that are not making money. That's important. I play[ed] for one of the teams that's one of the worst [in revenues], Milwaukee. We've got to have [sharing] with guys like the Lakers and the big-name teams that's making tons and tons of money. Donald Sterling's another guy that makes money even if he loses. We need to figure out a way to get that going."

The players say they've done a better job of financially preparing themselves for this lockout than they did in 1998. Playing overseas is a more viable option than it was then also. At this point the rank-and-file players might be more unified than the owners, who aren't in accord about whether to scrap the season or how to split the revenues once they resume.

But Maggette knows the cold truth.

"I don't care how much money that the NBA players have, you cannot beat billionaires,"

Source: ESPN

J.R. Smith signs for record amount with Zhejiang Chouzhou

09/14/2011 - 2:54am

An anonymous source with knowledge of the situation has told NiuBBall.com that Denver Nuggets free-agent guard, J.R. Smith, has signed a contract with the Chinese Basketball Assocation’s Zhejiang Chouzhou Golden Bulls. The deal is estimated to be worth around $3 million, making him the highest paid player in league history.

The news was first reported by Sina Sports on Sina Weibo (Chinese twitter) and has since been announced on Zhejiang’s official team website.

Smith joins Wilson Chandler, Earl Clark and Josh Powell on the list of NBA free-agents who have decided to play in China this season as a result of the lockout. Per league rules, Smith’s deal does not include an opt-out clause that would allow him to return to the NBA when the lockout ends.

Smith, like other NBA free agents, has received heavy interest from Chinese teams over the last three weeks. With the CBA having barred all NBA players with active contracts from playing here this season, free agents are the only NBA players who are eligible to sign with Chinese teams.

Before signing with Chouzhou, Smith was originally linked with a big money move to Shanxi Zhongyu.(...)

Shanxi has been seriously exploring bringing in a high level free agent to soften some of the blow. However, the source told NiuBBall.com that after having serious negotiations with Smith over the last week, the two sides simply walked away from each other after a final deal could not be a agreed upon.

Though Smith will join Chandler and Clark in province, he will be playing for a completely different team. Zhejiang has two teams, Zhejiang Guangsha and Zhejiang Chouzhou. Last season, the Golden Bulls signed Mike James and Josh Boone with the hope that two NBA-caliber players would catapult them up the standings. However, James never lived up to expectations and was released early in the season. Former 2007 San Antonio Spurs draftee, Marcus Williams, was brought in as a replacement and along with Boone, lead the team to a fifth place regular season finish. The team was then swept by Nanjing Nangang in the first round.

Source: NiuBBall.com

Despite posturing, owners and players near resolving money issue

09/14/2011 - 2:39am

Neither side would say how far the players moved economically, but a person with knowledge of the negotiations said they expressed a willingness to move lower than the 54.3 percent of basketball-related income they last proposed on June 30 as a starting point in a six-year deal. Stern disputed the players' contention that the owners haven't made an economic move since the day before the lockout was imposed. Nobody outside the room knows how many millions the two sides shaved off the gap, but it hardly matters since everyone seemed willing to concede that they've at least dipped their toes on common ground when it comes to dollars.

"I'd just say it's on the road, and we know how to negotiate over dollars when the time comes," Stern said.

Adam Silver, the deputy commissioner, said, "We said we went into this process with two goals: one was an economic goal, which we've addressed."

So what's the problem? It isn't the economy, stupid. It's the system. And the two sides' positions on that are as far apart as their rhetoric.

The league's indignation over the players' refusal to accept a hard salary cap can be summed up like this: The union offered to make an economic move, but only if the owners would agree in advance to keep most of the current system -- with its soft cap, luxury tax and various exceptions -- in place.

"It actually didn't make sense for us to respond to their non-negotiable demand that everything remain the same that it was," Stern said.

The players' astonishment at the owners' ongoing demands can be summed up like this: The owners want significant salary concessions, which they're on the verge of receiving, and they want a more restrictive cap system to go with it. They can't have both, say the players. It's straight out of the cake-and-eat-it-too negotiating handbook.

"We don't want a system where players come in, they have no security and you have two or three marquee players who get a guarantee -- and not a full guarantee as they have proposed, but a limited guarantee -- that everybody else would not have," Hunter said. "And these guys would be on one- or two-year deals and at any whim of any given owner or GM or whatever, they'd be out the door. And so we're saying, 'No way.'"

Source: CBS Sports

Sources: Agents want union to decertify

09/14/2011 - 2:38am

Five of the most powerful agents in the NBA spoke via conference call Monday about how they can help the players union in its stalemate with the league's owners. Their answer: blow the union up.

Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Mark Bartelstein, Jeff Schwartz and Dan Fegan -- who collectively represent nearly one-third of the league's players -- spoke Monday about the process of decertifying the union, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The agents' view is that the owners currently have most, if not all, of the leverage in these talks and that something needs to be done to turn the tide. They believe decertification will do the trick, creating uncertainty and wresting control away from the owners.

A hard cap remains a major sticking point between the owners and players, and TrueHoop's Henry Abbott breaks down the arguments. Blog

"The union has been negotiating with the league for a year and a half and the owners haven't changed their stance, so the conversation the agents had was about how to work with the union to enhance its strategy," a person close to the situation said on condition of anonymity. "The feeling is that decertification is the weapon that has to be pulled out of the arsenal, that it's the most effective way to change the dynamics of the negotiations."

The agents have spoken with Billy Hunter, the executive director of the players association, about the need for decertification, but he has thus far resisted their plan. He said Tuesday that the players are not yet considering decertifying.

"We've never really had any discussion about decertification," Hunter said after meeting with the owners. "As you're aware, we've obviously been experiencing some pressure in the media from some of the agents about decertification. That's not a message that has crossed our lips."

Hunter believes he has his own weapon to change the tenor of the talks in the lawsuit the union filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The suit claims that the NBA is not negotiating in good faith. Hunter said he hopes there will be a ruling within the next few weeks.

If the union wins its suit, the NLRB could declare the lockout illegal and end it, though the number of cases in which the NLRB has done that in the past decade is miniscule. Nevertheless, Hunter is not likely to consider decertification until getting the results of the suit.

The agents could push for an involuntary decertification by getting 30 percent of the league's players to sign a petition saying it supports decertification. And that's almost exactly the percentage of NBA players the five agents represent. While the agents have talked to their players about decertifying, sources say they have not started asking for signatures.

Source: ESPN

One thought on Adelman: 'That's my guy'

09/14/2011 - 2:33am

imberwolves center Brad Miller has spent the summer at home on his 1,000-acre farm in northeastern Indiana waiting and hoping.

Waiting for his surgically repaired knee to heal so he can soon start jogging and jumping again.

Hoping that his brand-new team really might hire Rick Adelman as its next coach.

"That's my guy," he said.

Player and coach were united for the third time in their careers on Tuesday, when the Wolves, in a bit of serendipity, announced Adelman will replace fired Kurt Rambis.

"When they were interviewing candidates, I was hoping a lot," Miller said. "I knew if it was Rick, Minnesota would be a lot better. Instantly, things became a lot better there, especially for me. He's a coach I respect, a fair coach.

"This guy, it's true what he can do. His record speaks for itself."

Miller has played for six different teams in a 13-year NBA career that has taken him from undrafted rookie to riches and two All-Star Game appearances.

Through it all, Adelman remains his favorite pro coach because of a sensible, straightforward approach that produces success.

So much so, Miller said he signed a three-year contract with Houston specifically for the chance to play again for Adelman and a coaching staff that largely had remained intact since Miller played three seasons for Adelman in Sacramento.

He was on Kings teams that featured Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Peja Stojakovic and Mike Bibby and lost to Kevin Garnett and the Wolves in a seven-game 2004 playoff series.

"I've got a little bit still in the tank," said Miller, who has two seasons remaining on that three-year contract, but only $1 million is guaranteed in the final year. "I know this coach, I know this system. I can't play 40 minutes a game anymore, but in practice, I can get them better. I'll come in and chew someone's butt. We'll get them right. I started doing this 13 years ago. I'm accepting of what I've done and where I am in my career. I'll help out where I can.

"The body doesn't react at 35 the way it did at 25, but the brain is getting smarter and better. I still know a few tricks."

And so much so, Miller hung out in the Houston locker room visiting with Adelman and his assistant coaches until he was kicked out before the game when he played for Chicago. The Wolves acquired him in a draft-night trade that sent Jonny Flynn and the No. 20 pick to the Rockets.

"He's not a man who needs to say a lot," Miller said. "That's just not his personality. In Sacramento, when we were winning all these games, he was kind of the same whether it was a good stretch or a bad one. But when he says something, you listen. You understand what he's saying.

"I know one thing: If you can't play, you're not going to play. He gets guys to build trust between the coaches and players. He expects you to do your job. He doesn't talk much, but when you get him going on the right subject, he has a nice smart-ass bite."

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

NBA players prepare to sit out half a season

09/14/2011 - 2:30am

After meeting for more than five hours on Tuesday, it appears the NBA is well on its way to a shortened season.

Billy Hunter, executive director of the players union, told reporters after Tuesday's meeting that the union is advising players that "they may have to sit out half the season before we get a deal."

Derek Fisher, president of the players union, added, "it's discouraging and it's unfortunate, but that's the reality of where we are right now."

Fisher added, "We can't come out of here thinking that training camps and preseason (games) are going to start on time at this point."(...)

When told about Hunter's comments, Boston Celtics center Jermaine O'Neal's first thoughts turned toward the NBA's expanding fan base.

"I feel bad for the fans that support this great league," he told CSNNE.com. "We want the league to be a great league, but we want it to be a fair league. We want to be fair to the owners, but we want to be fair to us, too. We don't want to be locked into something that's not fair to us."

Source: CSNNE.com

Cunningham drug, pellet-gun charges dropped

09/14/2011 - 2:28am

Based on court documents available on the internet Tuesday, Charlotte Bobcats forward Dante Cunningham will not face charges involving possession of marijuana and a pellet gun in suburban Philadelphia.

Cunningham had a court hearing in the town of Radnor Tuesday afternoon to address charges resulting from an April 29 traffic stop. At the time, he was charged with marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a pellet gun, along with unsafe equipment on his car and disorderly conduct, relating to unreasonable noise.

Tuesday, minutes into his scheduled preliminary hearing, the drug and pellet-gun charges were withdrawn. That could be a major break for Cunningham, in regards to potential discpline from the NBA, regarding drug policy.

Source: Charlotte Observer

Former Georgetown star Jeff Green not fretting free agency during lockout

09/14/2011 - 2:26am

This could easily be an unnerving time for Jeff Green. Green, the former Georgetown star who finished last season as a reserve with the Boston Celtics, is a restricted free agent unable to negotiate a lucrative contract until the NBA and the players’ union can come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement. All he can do is wait and hope something gets done to save the season.

“I’ve dealt with it the best I can,” Green said in a phone interview. “I’ve tried to keep myself busy. I’m still trying to stay in the loop with things going on, but not letting it get to me. It’s tough to be in that position, to possibly be sitting out. But you just have to do what you have to do to make things happen and if it doesn’t, try to do things to take your mind off it and continue to work until you’re called back to work.”

Green has stayed occupied playing summer league basketball at the Kenner League and the Goodman League and participating in an all-star exhibition at Morgan State with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and his friend and former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Kevin Durant. “That was crazy. I loved it,” Green said of the atmosphere in Baltimore two weeks ago. “I was just ready to have that opportunity during the summer to play against Carmelo, LeBron, Chris Paul all on the same team. It felt good to get some reps in against those guys. Those are guys I’m going to see a lot in the upcoming year. It was cool to get some run with them.”

(...)

Green said in May that he would consider returning home to play for the Wizards, but he also has a desire to stay in a playoff atmosphere after losing in the first round to the Lakers two seasons ago. Green said in May that he would consider returning home to play for the Wizards, but he also has a desire to stay in a playoff atmosphere after losing in the first round to the Lakers two seasons ago.“I’m getting further and further each year. I hope that continues every year,” he said.

Green won’t stress over where he winds up, whenever the next season begins. “Not at all. I have one of the best agents in the game, David Falk,” Green said. “He’s going to make sure I’m in a good position. He does his job and I do mine. I leave it up to him to try to make sure everything is intact when that time comes.”

Source: Washington Post

Jerry West on Phil Jackson, Wilt, Kareem, Kobe, Magic and everything : A searing, searching autobiography

09/14/2011 - 12:59am

West and Phil Jackson clearly had a distant relationship from the moment the Lakers brought Jackson in to coach Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant, and West confirms it all.

West says he was definitely troubled by Jackson’s relationship with Jeanie Buss and was put off by much of what Jackson was doing (Jackson’s first year was West’s last with the Lakers).

”So one of the problems I had with Phil was this,” West writes. “His office was right near mine and when he would arrive in the morning, he would walk right past and never even bother to wave or duck his head in to say hello.

“He would later say that he felt the need to stake out his territory, that on top of that he was ’a wack job,’ but I am sure it was more than that.”

West compares Jackson’s attitude to Pat Riley’s reach for more power after winning titles as the Laker coach, but West suggests that Jackson’s display was a colder version to experience.

“Phil and I had no relationship,” West writes. “None. He didn’t want me around and had absolutely no respect for me–of that, I have no doubt.”

–West re-counts and confirms one of the long-rumored tension points–West says Jackson threw him out of the locker room after a game, personally (“Jerry, get the f– out, I’m not finished here yet,” West quotes Jackson as saying, though West adds that Jackson later said he didn’t know it was West.)
West said he quickly left the locker room and didn’t ever respond to Jackson’s action.

“I wasn’t going to lower myself and get into a p– contest with him,” West writes.

–West says his relationship with owner Jerry Buss was altered when the Lakers moved out of the Forum in 1999 to Staples Center, and Buss was around less and less.

“The close nature of our relationship began to change, and not only did I feel more and more unappreciated, or under-appreciated, but my own personal demons, rooted in my childhood, were threatening me,” West writes.

“The Lakers had been home to me, unlike the home I had grown up and felt apart from. But now the home was feeling less and less hospitable, and I was sensing that I didn’t belong, or wasn’t wanted, there any more, that I had stayed too long at the fair and it was time for me to go.”

Source: San Jose Mercury News