- Kobe’s potential deal in Italy keeps changing in an effort to get him to come over and play at all. First it was a full season with an opt out. Then it was a 10 game in 40 day whirlwind tour. Now, it’s a single game reportedly valued at (up to) $2 million. Like I said before, wake me when it happens.
- I do give Claudio Sabitini (owner of Virtus Bologna) credit, however. He is pulling out all the stops to get Kobe to agree to a deal. His latest is a letter to El Presidente himself, and no I don’t mean Derek Fisher.
- Speaking of Kobe, if he does go to Italy, he’ll probably be wearing some new kicks.
- Of course, the only reason we’re discussing an overseas option for #24 is because the NBA season is on hold indefinitely with both the owners and the players entrenched in their respective positions. To their credit though, in order to try and grease the skids on an agreement, both sides have agreed to have a federal mediator intervene and oversee their negotiations. Ken Berger of CBS gives us the skinny on exactly what that could mean.
- While both sides continue to talk, fans want someone to blame for this mess. Lucky for us, there’s plenty to go around.
- In the meantime, we wait for positive news on when the season will start. If you want a potential bright side to all the waiting, it could be that the Lakers will be more rested and ready to compete whenever the season does get under way. Plus, with a shortened season, an argument can be made that each game becomes more important and thus encourages the Lakers to go all out more often. That said, none of this changes the fact that with missed games come real losses. Here’s a great list of numbers tallying up those losses.
- Enough with the lockout, though. If we can’t look forward to the future, why not go back in time. Here’s part two of a great look back at the 1993 draft.
Aaron says
I couldn’t disagree with Whitlock more… Do I just underrate Fisher as a player and overrate him as a public speaker?
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/Derek-Fisher-Billy-Hunter-NBA-lockout-David-Stern-The-Wire-wrong-roles-101211
Darius Soriano says
#1. Whitlock….sigh. All he makes are Wire references and half of them aren’t even good ones. He’s pretty much a hack at this point. I rarely disparage people’s work that way, but he’s basically unreadable to me.
Aaron says
2,
Ha… Then I will no longer post any links to his write ups.
dave m says
Yeah, Whitlock’s article was not only bad, but deliberately mean-spirited in that ‘get hits at any cost’ way.
Whereas Emile’s ’93 draft piece was awesome. Great series he’s writing. JR!!
Edwin Gueco says
Kobe playing in Italy is another dream being concocted by Italians in order to entertain themselves during their austere lifestyle. Can you imagine if Kobe plays 50 games, he gets a $ 100M. Is this not a ridiculous proposition just hitch on to 7/24 US sports news cycle or blogs?
lil' pau says
But it’s not 50 games, it’s one game. Can you imagine for example how many jerseys might be sold? it certainly would not be 50x that many if he played a whole season. I can imagine him providing a lot of merchandising value from that one game with revenue streams lasting for longer than a year….
It makes sense to me, although it seems to have very little to do with basketball. (No one in their right mind could say this about trying to achieve competitive advantage for that single game.)
Rusty Shackleford says
If there aren’t any Christmas games this year I’m going to start dressing up like an emo kid and sulking around in skinny jeans.
Aaron says
Zack Lowe is one of many who isn’t fooled by Stern’s dated propaganda campaign. Does David know this isnt 1998? Largely because of the Internet the average fan is exposed to the real information very easily.
http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011/10/14/stern-continues-to-skew-facts-in-media-tour/
sT says
For me, I never really liked the guranteed salaries that were being signed. I realize that the teams themselves were responsible for this, but if a player knows that he will get a guaranteed salary from another team than the one he is negotiating with, that is where he will probably go. There should be out clauses for both parties, but also fair to both. When a team gets stuck with a bad contract, it will affect their ability to compete and sign future players.
T. Rogers says
10- I like the idea of three year guaranteed contracts with the fourth year as an option for both the player and the team. Three years is not an eternity. If a player turns into Eddy Curry or T-Mac he will be off the books soon enough. By the same token if a young player shows serious improvement (like James Harden) he can opt out and test the market for a better deal.
One reason guaranteed deals are important is it helps teams stay together. Sure, some franchises want to break up their teams as fast as possible. But good teams need to be able at least try to keep their cores together. If Non-guaranteed contracts were the norm, keeping good teams together would be very difficult.
Darius Soriano says
A new post is up.
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2011/10/14/pau-gasols-nbarank/
Edwin Gueco says
6,
That was funny Knickers, we were in Italy for a week in 2001 when their monetary exchange was in lira. Today, the Bank of Italy and the government of Berlusconi is in limbo. If you think we have problems here, well it’s worst over there with zero growth and crippling debt.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d2a0874a-f65f-11e0-86dc-00144feab49a.html#axzz1aohxrZf8
IMO, Virtus Bologna would offer Kobe whatever figures in the air and pure talk but i doubt if it will ever materialize on paper. Also, they didn’t say just one game but per game so I’m extrapolating if lockout extends to February, that could be 50 games. No one is in his right mind would pay Kobe for so much with so little in return. Firstly, Europeans are frugal by nature and today they’re tightly depressed. If you don’t believe try to see how much is the salary of Tony Parker a measly $ 2K/mo who will be playing with a French team while there is a lockout. Secondly, There is austerity program in the whole Eurozone area, only Germany, England, Holland and Scandinavian countries have the resources, French banks are rumored floundering and cash strapped. There is fire sale everywhere from Iceland to Ireland, Greece to Portugal, Spain to Italy and Russia then problems are further compounded in the newly democratic Eastern bloc countries, Baltic states. Basketball is not even the No. 1 sport in Europe.