Understand that philosophically I have no issue with players leveraging a future for themselves they deem to be the most palatable. It’s been my experience that in matters of labour issues or freedom of movement you’re generally on safe moral and logistical ground backing players.
I mean, I’m the guy who didn’t have an issue with Eric Lindros’ power-play both in junior and then in forcing his way out of Quebec City as an NHL player. Nobody apologizes when they trade you after you’ve signed a multi-year deal, as far as I know. So if you can toss your weight around before you get locked in to a place you don’t want to be, I’m OK with it.
But what’s gone on in the NBA this off-season has to be concerning for commissioner Adam Silver and ownership, who have effectively seen the integrity of the player contract shredded. That’s a slippery slope that needs to be examined in a manner beyond simply acknowledging it’s a fact of having the kind of high-profile, engaged athletes most other pro leagues would die for.
This, in fact, has been a messy off-season for Silver, who has seen a free-agent player (Kawhi Leonard) either use intermediaries or personal persuasion to effectively tamper with a player under contract (Paul George) as a means of getting him to join him with the Los Angeles Clippers and another star player (Anthony Davis) force a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Los Angeles Lakers.
And we haven’t even found out yet what Leonard’s "advisor" Uncle Dennis received as his signing bonus. Normally, I’d just roll my eyes at whispers such as those surrounding the houses, planes or whatever ol’ uncle received for steering his nephew to the Clippers. After all, you know how these things work: teams that come up short in pursuit of a player need cover. It’s easier to say "we made a better offer but he didn’t sign" or "we did everything he asked and offered everything he wanted," than "we screwed up" or "he liked somebody better than us." Nobody’s ever really going to know since the hardest thing to prove beyond a doubt is the deal that didn’t happen.
I mean, if you’re the Lakers or Raptors it’s easier to say "we got played" or "we didn’t want to give Uncle Dennis his Maserati." But given how NBA players have run roughshod over their contracts this season? Given the buddy system that has become a part of the free-agent market? Really… would anything surprise you?
Silver runs a league that operates under a CBA that is a crazy-quilt of exceptions and exemptions but as far as we know also operates with a salary cap. If teams and agents and players are circumventing it, fans need to know because if it keeps happening the jollies that media and fans get from off-season moves will eventually be superceded by the realization that every star’s contract is essentially a one-year deal at which point it ceases being fantasy league fun.
That’s why it was so significant that instead of simply throwing his hands up and saying ‘it’s a players league,’ Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr (no right-wing/anti-player mouth-breather) told the Warriors Insider podcast that in his mind Davis’ move to the Lakers was "bad" for the NBA. Davis, of course, demanded a trade in January despite still having one-and-a-half years left on his contract. He then held his team hostage.
"There’s a way to move and a way to not move," Kerr said on the podcast. "What LeBron (James) did, played out his contract. What Kevin (Durant) did both when he arrived at Golden State and when he left. You sign contracts, you play them out and you move on. That’s how it should be done."
Kerr is right. Hey, if two guys get together and decide they want to take less money to form a dynamic duo or if a star decides that he wants to take less than market value or a shorter term to join or stick with a team, there isn’t a great deal that can be done to legislate against that. But at some point, folks are going to want to know that a contract is a contract — and at some point, this generation of uber-talented, uber-recognized players who come into the game after just one year of college will be replaced by another generation of stars. It will be that generation that faces any blowback. Not this one.
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NOW TWEET THIS
In which we wonder about Mariano Rivera’s secret obsession with far-right lunacy… take a fastball-down-the-middle poke at Angel Hernandez… salute the Maple Leafs’ ability to get around the anti-Leaf bias of the salary cap because so many people give them so much money… and contemplate Kevin Pillar’s season with the Giants… managing to do all of it without mentioning the trade deadline.
• Wholesale shock Wednesday that a 14-minute delay would be needed in the Rays-Red Sox game because umpire Angel Hernandez didn’t bother filling in his lineup card right away after a flurry of changes by Kevin Cash. Cash’s creativity + Angel Hernandez = H-E-L-P! #nobueno
• Mariano Rivera took to ‘Fox & Friends’ to respond to a Daily Beast report on his far-right politics. If this comes out earlier, no way he’s a unanimous choice for the Hall. #trustme
• Anybody who wants to know why Leafs GM Kyle Dubas thanks ownership and corporate partners at every opportunity need only think about where the money comes from to bury contracts like David Clarkson’s and work around the salary cap in the off-season. #breadmeetbutter
• It took the Jays 103 games to reach 100 rookie extra-base hits, faster than any Jays team other than the 1977 expansion year group and the fourth-fastest of any team since 2000 (2003 Indians: 91 games; 2005 Rockies: 88 games; 2006 Marlins: 54 games). #youthservednightly
• Kevin Pillar leads the Giants with 94 hits, and the former Jay is bidding to be the fourth player to lead a team in hits after being traded that year, joining Lee Thomas (‘61 Angels, 128 hits); Willie Montanez (‘76 Braves, 135) and Luis Polonia (’90 Angels, 128). #superman
• The D-backs’ Eduardo Escobar is one triple away from 20 home runs, 20 doubles and 10 triples. In baseball history just nine switch-hitters have managed that, including Roberto Alomar of the 2001 Indians, who is also one of four to do so in a season in which he had 100 RBIs. #triplethreat
• Interesting that the A’s are now linked to Noah Syndergaard: Billy Beane asked the Jays for him in the winter of 2011 in a deal involving Gio Gonzalez, surprising Jays people who had Syndergaard ranked behind the likes of Deck McGuire and Zach Stewart. #thorsday
THE ENDGAME
One of the discussions Richard Dietsch and I had on Prime Time Sports with SI.com’s Jon Tayler surrounded Taylor’s article asserting that this year’s Hall of Fame class was the last massive induction class we’ll see, given the paucity of slam-dunk newcomers over the next few seasons and the continued reluctance of the BBWAA voting pool to do the right thing and put in Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds.
Indeed, over the next three years the biggest names added are Derek Jeter in 2020 and David Ortiz in 2023 — both of them first-ballot Hall of Famers in my estimation — and, in 2021, repeat PED offender Alex Rodriguez.
It’s interesting that at a time when former commissioner Bud Selig has released a book that seems designed to whitewash his complicity in the game’s steroid scandal — Selig, by the way, is in the Hall of Fame despite of it — Major League Baseball seems to be helping out A-Rod burnish his reputation. He’s been give a prime spot on a rights-holder’s broadcast (and is quite good) and MLB.com has welcomed his relationship with J-Lo with open arms, including this fawning report on his 50th birthday present for her.
Hey, I’m OK with it… but, man, Bonds and Clemens have a whole lot less evidence against them and they sure don’t get any love from the powers that be.
