Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
When NBA owners talk about contracts being guaranteed for too long, for too much money, and to players who don't deserve them, they're basically talking about former Magic forward Rashard Lewis. He of the six-year, $118 million contract back in 2007. But Lewis has a pretty simple counterpoint for all the owners out there.
As he tells Michael Lee of the Washington Post:
Talk to the owner. He gave me the deal. When it comes to contracts, the players aren’t sitting there negotiating that contract. I’m sitting at home and my agent calls me, saying, ‘I got a max on the table.’ I’m not going to sit there and say, ‘Naw, that’s too much. Go out there and negotiate $20 or $30 [million] less.’
As a rebuttal, that's just about perfect. But look closer, and it's a little frustrating.
Plenty of people will see Lewis' honesty as a welcome change of pace from the owners' one-sided rhetoric. But Lewis' reasoning is pretty much identical to that of the owners. As he added:
I thought my agent did a good job of negotiating my contract, and at the time I was coming out of Seattle, averaging 23 points, playing well. It was perfect timing for me,. At the same time, I understand the owners don’t want to overpay players, but you’ve got to do better negotiating. Try your best to save money.
Don't get me wrong; I'm on the players' side in the NBA Lockout. The owners are trying to use a failing economy and a PR war to railroad them into a crappy deal. Hopefully the players will stay strong--as Rashard Lewis points out, it's not the players' fault that owners spend irresponsibly.
But as Rashard Lewis fails to mention: he really has been an absolute disaster for the past three seasons, making a mockery of his max salary along the way. He wasn't just bad; he was pretty much invisible. All while pulling down $21 million a year.
Building the NBA's brand is a shared responsibility, and as bad as it looks when owners blame their terrible decision making on the players, it's just as pathetic when, $80 million later, players blame 4 years of blatant mediocrity on an owner. At that point, the players look every bit as childish and irresponsible as the owners say they are.
The owners may deserve the bulk of the blame for the tenor of this lockout, but stuff like "talk to the owner" makes it just as tough to side with the players. If players can take credit for the growth of the game, they've also got to be honest about the hundreds of millions guys like Gilbert Arenas, Michael Redd, and Rashard Lewis have cost their teams.
Both sides have a responsibility to the fans that's been obscured by self-interest. It's not surprising since these are all humans and all humans are greedy and insecure and that's just life. But let's not get too caught up praising Lewis for echoing the owners in a different octave.
You know what'd it be a real change of pace? If Rashard Lewis had said, "I was overpaid, but I underperformed. Both sides deserve blame, and we've all let the fans down. Let's fix it."
Yeah. When can we do that?
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Comments
Wasn't redd done in by injury?
If so, you can hardly put that on him.
"Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time." John Wooden
by JoCro on Sep 22, 2011 1:42 PM EDT via iPhone app reply actions
But that doesn't change a lot.
Part of the owners’ stance is that they are paying for these injured guys, and getting nothing back in return. It’s not like worker’s comp; these players have to be completely healthy to play. And while it’s understandable that their paycheck allows them to keep their lifestyle, it isn’t right for the owners to pay full price for these guys.
A majority of teams have an injury horror story, where an injured guy sits and makes 20+% of the team’s salary while sitting on the bench. There should be an exception where a team can get some of the money back for an injured player (that’s been injured for more than half a season) so that they can replace them. Dallas got lucky and got Stojakovic before the playoffs, but other teams can’t afford that.
Lewis has a point though. His agent set up the deal. I think agents are a part of the issue as well. If a player wants to be on a good team, I’m sure they could take concessions for the team’s overall success.But agents get paid based on the size of the contract, not the quality. The agents are also to blame for a lot of these bad contracts.
by TheZen on Sep 22, 2011 4:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Lewis is a spoiled brat...
To hide behind your cutthroat agent and say “talk to the owners” really Rashard?
Your agent acts on your behalf, I’d be the same as if you were in their negotiating your contract.
The reason why owners have to overpay is because there are too many damn teams in the league! Say Orlando at the time said “Hey you know what we actually only want to pay you $80 million instead of $118 million” Rashard would have told them to F off and gone with some other random team that would pay him a little bit more. Since there are 30 teams out there desperate for good players you always have some terrible team with cap space willing to overpay so that if you are a contender trying to win a championship you have to match that terrible overpayment in order to win.
That… is a terrible system my friends.
by ap3604 on Sep 22, 2011 1:56 PM EDT reply actions
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