The Carmelo Cash Grab: The Two Sides of Free Agency

by Shaebaun "Suge" Benjamin

It is Mid-July and the NBA Offseason as we know it is probably over.

I don't expect the Timberwolves to end up trading Kevin Love before the season, so maybe there might be a minor trade or two before September.

From here you will probably see  minor veteran minimum signings and players cut or designated to the D-League.

So let's talk about what happened that got us here.

Lebron returned to Cleveland, a magnificent story. Miami felt that Chris Bosh was worth $118 million for some reason and they also feel signing Luol Deng for 2 years is a franchise changing move. I think Lebron leaving moved Pat Riley ten years forward into dementia. Lance Stephenson will be blowing air into people's faces in a Charlotte Hornets uniform. Pau Gasol is Chicago's Carmelo plan B.

Now let's talk about Melo.

Of course the feeling if you are not a New York Knick fan your feeling is that he took money over a championship. He signed a 5-year $124 million contract with a full no-trade clause and an opt out after year 4. Much more than the 4 years and $73 million Chicago had to offer.

That's a $51 million difference. I know some of you are saying $73 million is a lot of money regardless. Well $51 million regardless.

The only thing Chicago could guarantee was the "chance" at a title with that contract. That's like giving someone a lottery ticket with 25% chance at winning because we can assume with Chicago, Melo would at least make it to the Conference Finals. But there are a pack of teams out west that would still beat that Bulls squad in the NBA Finals.

Carmelo Anthony emphasized wanting to be able to contend this season and thereafter. He consulted with Phil Jackson, Knicks president, on the offseason moves he made. Jackson highlighted that the Knicks may not be able to contend for a title in 2014-15 but would be able to have plenty of flexibility in 2015 and 2016 to make moves to make them championship contenders. He also offered him that max contract.

The NBA these days is structured in a way that promotes "superteams", but with a salary cap at about $60 million you cannot pay multiple players maximum money. So the term "sacrifice" comes up a lot.

This is why as fans we talk about players being greedy and taking money over winning. For instance I was mightily upset when former New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano left for Seattle. The Yankees had offered 7 years $175 million and Seattle Mariners offered 10 years $240 million and he took the latter. I hate that he left, but $65 million is a lot to pass up.

The people that don't sacrifice are the one's who get the trophy handed to them when the players win it, the owners. You never hear of any sacrifices made by them.

In the courting of Melo, the plan for Chicago was to acquire him by sign & trade. The Bulls did not have the necessary cap space to sign him outright. The name that kept coming up was Carlos Boozer, who is on an expiring deal for $16.8 million. The Bulls attempted to trade him rather than use their amnesty provision, which would clear cap space by paying him his full salary and releasing him.

Jerry Reinsdorf who owns the Bulls as well as the Chicago White Sox, one could assume, simply did not want to pay someone to not play for him. It isn't far fetched. Reinsdorf with a few other baseball owners were found guilty of collusion by an arbitrator in the 1980's. Collusion is the act of having an agreement with other owners to not sign a certain player in order to decrease their salary demands.

So the Bulls strategy was for the Knicks to facilitate moving their star by taking an unwanted contract and maybe some draft picks, probably not much else besides that.

That's like someone taking your nice leather couch in exchange for their ugly, stained couch and some coupons for a recliner.

Point is championships are far from guaranteed, which is why only a small percentage of players have them. You can only put yourself in good position to do so. Jackson offer that to Melo as well as the money he deserved. Money, at least in all sports except football, is all guaranteed and going for top dollar should not be criticized as vehemently as it has.

We all know the ones that criticize would not do it themselves. If you were working at Macy's you wouldn't take a paycut for the better good of the company knowing the CEO would still be jet-setting his family to Aruba and Italy for vacations year in and year out.

The other thing about Carmelo Anthony is that he was not leaving a 20 win team but a 37 win team coming off a down year with absolutely no leadership from the front office to the last man on the bench. Some would say that he did not deserve a max contract because he missed all three All-NBA teams. The man averaged 28.1 and 8 rebounds, you can't hold the fact that Raymond Felton was his point guard against him.

Phil Jackson arrived with a plan and implanted a coach with the tools to do well. They will have enough cap space to go after one or maybe two impact players in next year's free agent class and their first round draft pick.

Somehow in the past 2 months the thirteen-time NBA champion convinced Melo to take the money and follow his blueprint.

Jerry Reinsdorf and the Bulls offered a former MVP who relies on his quickness with questionable knees and defensively effective team. I actually speculated that the Bulls were sitting on their amnesty in the case that Derrick Rose's legs would give out yet again.

In actuality, they used the amnesty on Boozer because they could not work out a sign & trade for Gasol, involving him.

Lebron James' contract with Cleveland is only for 2 years but he smartly did so. The maximum contract and salary cap is decided by the result of revenue the league makes, which is why there was a lockout in 2011. This issue was the amount of revenue the players would receive. In 2016, the NBA's television contracts are up. With the league being the second most watched in the country and the second most popular sport in the world those contracts will be worth a lot.

The owners are always in good position to make money. Whether it is through television money or the sale of their team. A truly ignorant man will sell his franchise and make more than any other owner in history all because he made some sensationally idiotic comments to a female companion.

So Lebron has done this not as threat to leave Cleveland but as a way to insure that as the best player in the league he is paid as such.

If the owners continue to collect money and improve their ring and trophy collection, so should the players.

Derek Jeter...

What Happens When Men Are Honest...

I thought I add this video as bit of social commentary 

Men & Their Damn Feelings

By Shaebaun "Suge" Benjamin

For every romantic relationship you have, you stand to lose 2 or 3 close friendships in that period of time.

Much is made about men and their emotions. Men should be macho and the devoid of feeling. Those who show emotion have ostracized and called "bitches" or "pussies". On black twitter we call that acting "light skinned". 

While browsing through my timeline on twitter, I find many men, several of them friends of mine gathered up in emotion complaining of problems with their women, problems finding women, sometimes an angry deposition to women in general.

A while back I jokingly went on a tirade with the help of my roommate to portray myself in a woeful state brought on by a woman. In reality at the time had been talking to 3 or 4 women at the time. Not really caught up with any of them. But I will give a quick rundown:

Girl 1

Me and my two friends as well as another student rented a house where of course we threw parties. At one such occasion this girl whom my best friend had relations with 2 years prior had brought a friend to our party. My friend made off with his old flame and I took the young lady to my room. I attempted to make out with her but she hesitated because she had a boyfriend in the army. After a while I cut my losses and bid her adieu. We texted a bit and I'd say hello every now and again because she worked the front desk at a common place on our campus. I made a massive contact list to send a group text to everyone alerting them of a party of ours. One night I stepped on a landmine. I sent the text at 8:00pm, she texted back at 9:00pm and the longest "argument" I'd ever had with a woman started. We "talked" from pregame to party, party to mid-party, all while I was entertaining guests. She went on and on for about 3 hours while "laying next to her boyfriend" and I got to the point that I figured "this girl wants to cheat on her boyfriend with me but, god, she's trying to convince herself that she shouldn't by trying to convince me she shouldn't and I'm getting a fucking headache from this". We never texted again and I tried to avoid her at all costs in public.

Girl 2

This one was a freshman and I was what you'd call a super senior, I was 22 at the time. I'm a big USC football fan and we were about to throw a party on a Saturday. A bunch of my roommate's teammates came to our house to pregame. I was upstairs watching the Trojans blow a game to Arizona State. You know, one of those 14-11 games. This girl shows up and starts wilding out all over the place, one of the girls Aziz Ansari calls a "whoo girl". Fuck her. She had a friend with her who was the polar opposite it terms of personality but equal in attractiveness. I couldn't stand any of those dudes so I stayed out of the kitchen except to grab a beer or a drink. I went down and grabbed a beer and looked at this cute little thing looking like a lost puppy. We talked for a little and got her number. We texted and ate together a few times. She was an athlete so I promised to come to some games (I never did, I had no car, so I car pooled with my friends to campus). She texted me out of the blue and asked if I was just talking to her for sex. This is the moment of truth, how you answer this question shows your mettle as a man. I feel that when a girl asked you that question you ought to answer with your heart. If it is "yes" say it. If it is "no" say it and mean. If you lie, you are setting yourself up to be a scumbag. I said "no" because honestly I had never thought of sleeping with her...since the first time we met. She took my word for it. Then one night at a party she got too drunk and so I begged my friend to take her to her teammate's place where I helped her by making sure she was hydrated and took her and her friend back to her dorm. She texts me the next day and shows her gratitude by telling me she only thought of me as a friend. 

Here's some insight into me; I don't believe in the friendzone or being friendzoned. Understand me ladies, I have more than enough female friends, meaning women whose company I enjoy in a completely platonic manner and no romantic feelings. As soon most women understand that, the sooner they will stop calling men immature for not talking to them after they rebuff their advances.

Girl 3

The bane of my existence. When a girl compares herself to another girl who's sheer mention haunts a university, you ought to get away. The other girl was an insufferable broad who sought drama like I seek a new burrito joint in the city (that's a lot). They said my girl resembled this girl. I didn't see it because I never found that girl attractive. Girl 3 was from the same area as my best friend so he knew her for a while. They buddied up on the fact that their exes were dating. Then an incident occurred, I can't go into detail, but it was not fun. My friend and her became enemies but her and I grew closer. We tweeted cute things to each other (if Timehop brings them up I might vomit on the spot). We texted. Fact of the matter proximity was a problem. I say that because there was another guy who lived in her dorm that was talking to her (and likely much more) while he was also talking to an ex of my best friend (they were all involved in the above incident). This guy had it out for me and my buddy. He would stare at us at parties, at school, in the cafeteria, everywhere. Either he wanted to do something, or felt we were going to do something. Girl 3 loved all of it. She appreciated the attention. She probably had to change her underwear every time she thought of us beating the shit out of each other. Truth be told, because of something stupid I did the year before, I would never do something impulsive because of woman. More on that later. Should I also mention that the other guy showed up to my house and says to me “-----------, you can have her dog, we shouldn’t be fighting over hoes”. I told her of this gentleman saying I could have her as if she was the last slice of pizza and he called her a hoe in the same sentence and she still went on to have a relationship with the guy. Suffice to say I walked away because those two were made for each other.

After all of this I remember something my much more intelligent older sister advised me to during my freshman year of college, I'm paraphrasing, "Don't wife these bitches, hit it and quit it, son", she has her masters she knows what she's talking about. In all seriousness, what she meant was that college is a tough environment as is with education, social life, partying, and keeping up with family that to add the headache of relationship could be too much.

Throughout life I feel there will be people that you get involved with that snatch a piece of you that you need and they don’t really want but they take it anyway. It’s happened to me in the 8^th grade with a young lady that has done very well for herself and yet again during the best year of my life so far.

That year I did very well in school because I took more writing and literature classes, so I played to my strengths. My intramural team won the championship, which to a non-athlete that likens himself to one is a great feat. My social life was awesome. I met lifelong friends and had very few enemies. I was actually truly happy.

Then, let’s call her Girl X, Girl X came into my life. She wasn’t particularly great looking, a 6.5 or a passable 7 on some days if the sun lit a certain way. Her friends hung out at our suite which was almost like a hotel a few times a week. For some faint reason I felt an attraction.

I had always been shy from kindergarten to even this day when it came to girls especially the ones I really liked.

I went away for Thanksgiving break and went out with my boys from back home and texted her from this bar through the urging of my friends after telling them how I felt.

She was never concerned about ruining our friendship or anything so I convinced her to give us a try or at least I thought I did.

She made half assed efforts to hangout and get to know each other. I find that much more agonizing than friendzoning. At least if I was friendzoned, as I said before, I would have got out of dodge, by promising to keep things platonic but never speak to her again.

Apparently she had eyes for a friend of mine, actually the first person I told I had feelings for her to, ironically. But, unfortunately for her he was already courting another girl and saw Girl X as a “friend”. Also my friend and I were going through some issues at the time, as a matter of fact our entire group had internal issues like the 1977 Yankees or something.

With all of this going on my head was all over the place. I didn’t eat much and wasn’t much fun to be around. I became a caveman. I was like the kids on South Park when Bebe got boobs.

Here’s the thing I regret, and I will finally admit it here, and apologize to my buddy again.

I was walking down some stairs at a party and he was walking up. I passed him and he passed me. He reached out to embrace me and shoved him off. He yelled up to “what’s your problem bro”. In reality that meant, why are you pushing me away I’m your friend. But, my dumbass, at the time took it as “Alright asshole, your girl likes me, get over it.” I hurled an open beer can at him and a bunch of dudes grabbed us and separated us.

The next day, I played it off saying it was about the conflict in our group and not the girl. To be honest until recently I believed that myself. But, it was about her.

It’s been a while but I still see her and questions pop up in my head.

“Why did I want her?”

“Do I still want her?”

“If I she texted me out of the blue and said she realized she wanted me, how would I feel?”

I could have lost a good friend I had good times with that day. Fortunately I didn’t but our relationship is definitely different since the “beer throwing” incident.

So when you talk about men and their feelings, here are mine and their reasons. Share yours, instead of whining randomly on social networks leaving you open to ridicule. Since I was open about my experiences drop some of yours “anonymously” in the comments so we know why you feel that way.

Oh, and here’s the 2012 Intramural Championship Team,

The Decision? The Return? No, The Evolution

by Jeramy Kopacko

Let me start with by saying I have been on leading the hate chants on LeBron since The Decision. If you’re apart of the cult following, keep reading.

Today, we saw the next chapter of LeBron James: The Return. Within minutes, all of Cleveland forgave their hometown superstar sellout. The jerseys were pulled out the trash, the billboards read “Witness” once again, and Dan Gilbert apologized. Happily ever after, right?

We can’t forget. It happened, he said it, not one, not two, not three… and he didn’t. He fled to join other superstars. He fled to leave the scrutiny of losing. He turned his back on his city.

Four years later, Lebron is back with 4:1 odds of winning a championship. Which, of course, comes with all the publicity and comparisons. Did anybody stop and examine this free agency? Did anyone talk with Lebron live over the decision?

Alright, you’re confused. Let’s step back and time travel.

"There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team,'" Jordan said after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. The interview aired on the NBC telecast of the event. "But that's ... things are different. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."

This quote was made famous on July 19, 2010 by Michael Jordan, just 11 days after the controversial “Decision” aired. LeBron James made it known that he was leaving his hometown of Cleveland to “take his talents to South Beach.”

Stop right there.

This isn’t an attack. Let’s examine the situation. LeBron went in front of live television to publicly announce where he was going to sign in free agency. More importantly, basketball became entertainment like the WWE Raw. He ridiculed the his hometown, the fans, the organization, and himself. The ultimate form of  disrespect to the team that drafted you.

Back to my point.

The media ran rampant on this. Every sports journalist reported it as a slam against LeBron’s ego. Jordan, the arguably greatest player, calling out the face of the NBA. Classic story: “Former Great calls out New Star.” Here’s the plot twist: he wasn’t.

Charle Barkley is quoted saying “There would have been something honorable about staying in Cleveland and trying to win it as 'The Man’.” The same thing happened. Which turned into comparing the 90s era of basketball to the common day. Don’t.

This was the league’s elite giving advice to the next generation. They've experienced the spotlight, the glory, the riches, fame, MVP, titles, and so on that comes with the talent. They’re trying to pass knowledge they’ve obtain the hard way.

So today, around noon, SI releases an article of an essay. An essay written by LeBron announcing his decision to return to Cleveland. An easy written by Lebron, himself, announcing his continual lack of leadership and return to the better team.

Time to change your opinion.

Now, let’s let Lebron speak:

“If I had to do it all over again, I’d obviously do things differently, but I’d still have left. Miami, for me, has been almost like college for other kids. These past four years helped raise me into who I am. I became a better player and a better man.”

I want to really emphasize “like college for other kids” and “a better man” out of this statement. LeBron was a basketball cover child at 16. LeBron was drafted at 18. LeBron was Rookie of the Year at 19. All Star Game MVP at 21. League MVP at 24. Do you see what I’m getting at here?

Lebron’s biggest enemy was himself. If this past season’s loss proved anything, it’s that LeBron is ready to return to Cleveland to be The Man. In an loss effort, LeBron put up arguable MVP numbers in a Finals loss. What was Dwayne Wade’s team in 2010 has evolved to Lebron’s team in 2014. If we really look at this announcement today, we see someone returning with maturity. We see a boy leave and return a man. We see his first test: teaching Andrew Wiggins the same.

PEDs: The Fat Magilla Gorilla in MLB's Room

by Shaebaun "Suge" Benjamin

In no way am I an advocate of steroid usage or any other PED usage in sports.

People hitting 60-70 homeruns year after year is not fun to watch in my opinion. If that were the case they'd play the sport with nerf balls and play on little league fields.

What I do believe in is the idea that if you committed an idiotic act with which there are consequences and you serve the punishment, you should not be further faced with much more punishment just because.

Red Sox pitcher John Lackey kind of sort of made comments disparaging Baltimore outfielder Nelson Cruz who after last year's Biogenesis Investigation by Major League Baseball was suspended 50 games as per the punishment for first time offenders of their PED policy.

Cruz went 5-5 against Lackey and based on his league leadership in homeruns was selected by the fans to start the MLB All Star Game in Minnesota next week.

Lackey criticized fans for having "selective memory" on Cruz's PED history.

That's his opinion, but, what about the "selective memory" Boston fans have toward their beloved postseason hero David Ortiz, who in 2009 was discovered to have been on list of positive tested steroid users from 2003. That list was meant to be private but with the amount of players that were on that list who were later found out to be PED users you cannot be too sure Ortiz is squeaky clean.

The Red Sox and Ortiz put together a press conference to clear the air which cleared up nothing as Ortiz simply said he doesn't know why he's on the list and no one felt the need to follow up.

PED use is asinine. Cruz for example was paid $10.5 million for last season while with the Texas Rangers. 50 games amounts to 30% of a 162 game season, so Cruz lost $3.15 million in his suspension. Alex Rodriguez is losing his entire salary for this season due to his suspension. His salary this year is a little less than $30 million.

If you want to gamble that kind of money in order to hit more homeruns or have a faster recovery time from injuries be my guest. This year will have been eleven or so years since MLB and the MLBPA implemented a drug policy and we are still having people test positive and get suspended. If the problems continue the penalties should not cost players just money but should also put their careers in jeopardy.

Start off with an entire season for a first timer and then 3 years for a second offense. You would not get to a third offense which is a lifetime ban. If you lose three years of baseball to steroids your career is effectively over, especially if you are older.

If player X is 22 years old and gets suspended and loses a year from a first timer suspension he will be 24 when he returns. He plays 2 years then he is 27 in that third season back, he faces his second suspension and loses another 3 years. When he returns from that suspension he is 31. At that age his ability is question and  may have gotten a few seasons in over ten years but has lost millions of dollars in suspended season.

Player X or any other player ought to think long and hard about seeing that shady doctor or having their cousins become their drug mules with those penalties.

As far as for people like Lackey, put a sock in it, because the next big PED scandal may include the guy sharing your clubhouse. Nelson has served his suspension and signed a one year deal at lower than what his market would have been without the suspension. He is performing extremely well on said contract and deserves to be an All Star. You cannot hold his past PED use against him, if that were the case then the league should place lifetime bans on all offenders.

The policy is in place for players to be held accountable and right their wrongs. To forever ostracize players after they have served their time is just plain wrong.

 

Say Hello to the Bad Guy...uhhh I Mean Jason Kidd

by Shaebaun "Suge" Benjamin

I am a gigantic Stone Cold Steve Austin fan. I mean if I ever met the Texas Rattlesnake in my lifetime, no matter if I were 44 years old I'd probably cry like pre-teen girls do when they see that delightful young lady Justin Beiber.

He was my favorite wrestler, go as far as to say my hero. In wrestling good guys go bad at some point to make them more interesting, they call this a heel turn. The WWE had the audacity to do this twice. Once by aligning him with his mortal enemy Vince McMahon and another when he turned on the WWE to join the ECW/WCW faction in the hilarious Invasion storyline.

Both times I followed him even though he was a "heel", I just felt that he had his reasons and that's good enough for me.

Last week Hall of Fame point guard and recent NBA coach Jason Kidd was "traded" from the Brooklyn Nets to the Milwaukee Bucks to become their head coach.

He and general manager Billy King had a relationship that turned coldly tumultuous. Kidd was only on the job for a few months and about half of a year from shooting airballs in the playoffs for the Knicks when he suggested the Nets hire someone over Billy King because he felt King didn't know what he was doing.

King swung the Pierce/Garnett trade. A bold move that helped the Nets become contenders. I think he knew what he was doing. I don't think he knew what he was doing when he hired a coach that was way in over his head.

The history of Jason Kidd is a colorful one. He was drafted from the University of California by the Dallas Mavericks in 1994 and got a share of the Rookie of the Year with Grant Hill. He was traded to Phoenix(more on that later) and later on to New Jersey. He took a swamp of a franchise that oddly enough resided in a swamp to two straight Finals and may have been the real MVP of the 2001-02 season not Tim Duncan, no disrespect. His time in Jersey came to a close and he returned to Dallas through a trade and finally won an NBA title in 2011 albeit as a role player. He played his final year as locker room veteran leader on the Knicks helping them win the Atlantic Division before retiring and becoming the head coach of the Nets.

Now here is the colorful part.

In his first few years in Dallas he played with Jimmy Jackson with whom there was a rumored love triangle with R&B singer Toni Braxton which caused a rift between the two. Both were eventually shipped out elsewhere.

He and his wife Joumana had a physical altercation at a Taco Bell drive-thru of all places. He was ordered to take anger management classes and the two eventually divorced because she was not much of an angel either.

Byron Scott was his coach during his two trips to the Finals with the Nets. The two fell out of favor and Kidd pressured the front office to trade him or fire Scott in a classic "he goes or I go" situation. Well Scott was gone and Kidd stayed.

In came Lawrence Frank, who Kidd clicked with. They were successful early on but the departure of Kenyon Martin et al forced the Nets into a rebuild and Kidd in his latter thirties could not endure a long rebuild. Makes sense. Being that by the time that rebuild ended Kidd was their head coach and as  coach pressured management to bring Frank in as an assistant, the most lavishly paid one at that, he then pressured them to oust him.

I have always loved and respected Kidd as a player. The guy recorded a ton of triple doubles as a point guard. He was a fearless leader. I feel that Kidd truly had his reasons for this move to Milwaukee.

Kidd suggested hiring a team president over King. He didn't suggest himself as first reported or anyone else for that matter. Maybe he felt that a Russian billionaire and a guy who hadn't been the most successful general manager with the Nets or 76ers could use another voice on matters of basketball operations.

Kidd was given a team expected to be among the NBA's elite as his first job. He now has reign of a team that is on the younger side and likely more open to being coached by him. Remember, he coached Kevin Garnett, a guy drafted only a year after Kidd was.

Kidd may seem like a bad guy but in reality, he, Billy King, and the Nets may all be better after this ordeal.