TheAthletic- The first player Altman ever signed to a contract as GM was Kyle Korver. It was a three-year, $22 million deal inked in July of 2017, but it came with an understanding: If LeBron were to leave, the Cavs would either trade Korver or buy him out of the deal so he could move his family to his next team during the summer. So when LeBron left July 1 for the Lakers, Korver asked for the Cavs to move him. They refused because, they told him, they wanted him to play and for the team to try and win. To be fair, in the event of a Korver trade they would want maximum value in return, like a first-round pick. Anyway, the same basic message of competing now was communicated to Kevin Love before he agreed to a four-year, $120 million extension and to rest of the returning players.
------ An understanding? AN UNDERSTANDING?! Imagine thinking some vague implication carries power in the business world of professional sports? What a life that must be to walk around thinking "...but...but...but...you said you would!" is a line of reasoning that's capable of getting through to NBA executives. To be honest, I'm a bit jealous of the naivety, as I'm far too aware of my illiteracy in the language of contracts to try to speak it in good conscience. All I know is that I know absolutely nothing other than the fact that a "promise" made in negotiations is about as binding as a promise ring gifted in middle school. Seriously, there are 7th graders walking around wearing the type of jewelry found at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box whose two week old relationships have as much of a defined future as Kyle Korver's tenure in Cleveland did when he signed on the dotted line. As if the Cavaliers don't have enough problems as a dumpster fire of an organization that can only be saved from the purgatorial hell-scape that is NBA irrelevancy for stretches by the return of a savior whose regional loyalty is tied to something as silly as him happening to be conceived nearby. We're really going to toss in "they also don't keep their word 100% of the time!" on top of the dirty laundry list of ways in which they are incompetent? Come on. Now we're just taking liberties while they remain out-to-lunch as a mess that looks a hell of a lot hotter sans LeBron.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|