In what was a surprise move at least to me, Baron Davis opted out of the last year of his contract, that was to pay him nearly $18 million this upcoming season. This is according to the AP via ESPN.com.
The reason why I never thought it would happen is because I didn’t think there was a market for Davis to make more than that.
What it means to me is that maybe Davis and his agent think that it’s not safe to play out the deal and risk possible injury and instead, market himself based on last year’s play. If he were to get injured this year, his reputation would suffer and his earning power could be cut drastically. But I’m not sure it’s even going to matter. If anyone saw Davis at the end of last year, he wasn’t even close to the same person he was in the first half of the season. To say that he wore down at the end of the season would be a fair statement.
The Davis camp must believe that there’s a secure deal out there. He gave up $18 million for the opportunity to find one. Now the Warriors need a point guard, whether it’s going to be Davis if they resign him, or someone else.
What about Davis for Elton Brand in a sign and trade?
Ever since the Bulls won the rights to draft first, people wondered if they would take Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose. Beasley is a power player who has been pegged in this spot since the middle of the college season. Rose is a point guard who got his team all the way to the championship game. The Bulls seemed to like Rose better for a few reasons, and the word on Beasley was that he didn’t work hard enough, was immature, and was being compared to the likes of Derrick Coleman and Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson, former number 1 picks with great talent that didn’t work hard enough to fully realize it.
I asked “Basketball Blog” contributor and Bulls fan, Young Randall what he wants the Bulls to do.
I think the Bulls take Rose with the first pick. I really wouldn’t care if they take Beasley as their most glaring hole is a post scorer. But if they take Rose then they should move Hinrich and possibly Gordon for either another pick or a big from somewhere.
What I didn’t post is that Young Randall also said he wanted to see a full length version of Shaq’s freestyle rap, where he basically asked Kobe how his backside tastes. Why Young Randall would want to hear more, I’m not sure. He’s a mysterious guy.
Let’s get this going. We’ll see how long I can last.
If you haven’t heard, Hall Of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw was on Dan Patrick’s radio show and said that in the 1970s, he used steroids for reasons other than building obscene amounts of muscle.
“We did steroids to get away the aches and the speed of healing. My use of steroids from a doctor was to speed up injury, and thought nothing of it… It was to speed up the healing process, that was it. It wasn’t to get bigger and stronger and faster.”
It seems like a safe enough quote, except that the excuse is the same excuse all of the pro wrestlers used, including Hulk Hogan on The Arsenio Hall Show.
