I'm not shy to ask questions. When Josh and I were engaged for a year, I waved a town Police Officer over to the sidewalk while outside of a restaurant to ask where they get gas in their cars. I never see them at gas stations so I was curious. He gave a small laugh and answered with "we have a private station". It turns out Lisa went to High School with the Officer I waved over. That story is just to give anyone who doesn't actually know me a sense of what I'm like.
As I wrote in a previous post we follow five teams but I also read a lot about other teams within those sports. There are some things athletes do that it doesn't matter what sport they play, the behavior can be predicted. I've seen it before, 'Melo is making it clear as a bell that he absolutely hated the idea of playing for the Nets. His refusal to sign that contract extension for so long is a sign. So from the first Fanhouse article I read about it (http://www.fanhouse.com/) I said "No!No!No! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Agreed to or not he wouldn't have played well for the Nets and would have ruined the locker room chemistry with finger pointing when the loosing starts. He wasn't worth giving up a strong and talented leader in Devin Harris (not to mention that might have thrown Brook Lopez off) but to give up such a promising talent in Derek Favors would be.....well......stupid. I didn't want to give up the draft picks either since we have done reasonably well with the draft recently. Star players treat us like prison and they avoid us at all cost without seeing the talent that would be a fabulous support system for them. Not players like Jordan Farmar who we got this year. He was a backup point guard on the Lakers last year and is Devin Harris's backup but he's clearly happy to be here. Happy to be part of a growing team. He could have had the same job and maybe another ring with the Lakers but chose us. No star can see what we can offer beyond Prokhorov's money. I want a player who will cherish our growing success more then getting success by joining success. Bottom line........"melo and LeBron James for that matter aren't man enough to take that risk.
I trust Brian Cashman of the Yankees, Jerry Reese of the Giants, and Lou Lamoriello of the Devils. The Red Bulls are too new for us to know for sure. I noticed that right after Cliff Lee choose the Phillies the Yankees hyped their catching prospects and mentioned Jose Montero as a backup. Interesting, Cervelli is a backup with a ring, ready to be a starter. After two weeks of hyping the catchers it suddenly stopped. My guess, Cashman got a bite from a rebuilding team in need of a starting catcher with a low payroll and a strong starting pitcher who's contract will be up at the end of the year, making him too expensive to retain. Only time will tell. But I don't know if I can trust the Nets General Manager, Billy King. He's new this year and I like most of the changes from the off season but I doubted his abilities when he seemed to be in denial about 'Melo's rejection. So I called him. I had to leave a message since it was a Sunday night. I told him about my concerns that 'Melo isn't worth giving up Harris, Favors, and draft picks and mentioned why. I told him I didn't know if I can trust him. The next day I called during business hours and his secretary recognized my message and took another one. Calmly, I asked for an explanation as to why he thinks it's a GOOD idea. I retold my concerns and asked to know more about the players we would be getting. I never got a call back.
About a week later NBA.com did an article on how the trade would be great cap-space wise. So I emailed that author. I again repeated my views on why it's a bad idea stressing the not playing to potential part and the locker room let down part. I asked Player-wise, is this a good deal. Two days later I had an answer in the form of another article on NBA.com. Someone had asked some scouts their views on this and they all agreed he's great for the scoring point but he's not a team player. All of them thought this was a bad idea. The next day Mikhail Prokhorov, Nets Owner, announced their pursuit was over.
I'll probably never know if my comments either directly to Billy King or through that question on NBA.com influenced this decision. I wonder if the players even heard the messages I left for Billy King considering Favors has had more playing minutes ever since and both Favors and Harris have played better then I've ever seen them starting the night the announcement was made. Farmar was on fire too. Two days after that announcement, they won with all three throwing in strong performances in front of Prokhorov, at home. I mentioned in that voice mail how much I liked Avery Johnson (the head coach) and what he's doing. I see Avery smile a lot but not that big and that often. I am usually correct on my sports predictions and comments I make have later been repeated by Sports Writers and Analysts so I know what I talk about. I have surprised many men with my knowledge on this stuff. Won't it be cool if I WAS partially responsible for the Nets stopping their trade talks for Carmelo Anthony? Fans who wanted him were seeing his current numbers but those stats would definitely have dropped if he came here. In the long run, it's the best choice. Just like when Cashman passed and a trade for Johan Santana and opted for a bad year in 2008 to land CC Sabathia for the World Series winning 2009. All that criticism he got for passing on Santana. Let's ask the Met's: how's Santana playing for ya? CC is one of those rare players that continue to play like their pay. I trusted Cashman when he passed on Santana and wasn't wrong. Billy King is slowly earning that same kind of trust too.
No comments:
Post a Comment