Danny Ferry, after having to settle for a 34-year-old shooting guard, is back on the free agent horse.
Very secretly, while Miami was indulging their fantasies of bringing back Lamar Odom from L.A. (who can pay him more money and is a better team in a bigger market), the Cavaliers have signed the Heat's Jamario Moon (6-8, 200 lbs., 29 years old) to an offer sheet worth somewhere around $3 million per year for 2 years. How awesome is this? For those of you who don't know what it means to sign a restricted free agent to an offer sheet, here is what it is:
When you are an unrestricted free agent, you can sign with any team you want. Your old team can offer you more money because of something called "Bird rights," but you can still do whatever you want. When you are a RESTRICTED free agent, other teams can sign you to "offer sheets." After that happens, your old/current team has 1 week to match that offer, or you now have a new team. So why is this cool?
Because the Heat are having trouble. Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade have been going back and forth through the media about Wade committing to the Heat so they could get free agents to come to Miami. Now, the Heat have been trying to finagle Carlos Boozer and Lamar Odom as desperation moves to quickly and easily improve the team, while still having young guys like Daequan Cook and, yes, Jamario Moon that they need to re-sign. They are sort of in trouble...so Ferry is trying to pick off one of their quality yet more expendable guys for cheap. It's kind of a dirty move and I love it. It's clearly possible that the Heat will match this offer and, I won't lie, I do have my hopes up. I just like the spirit of this move.
For anyone unfamiliar with Jamario's work, here's a quick taste. He can jump...HIGH. I would like him.
Dunking on LeBron
I would like to say that the national sports media has reached a new low, but this is pretty much par for the course.
After turning LeBron's non hand-shaking policy and his themed shirts he wears on vacation into a reason he is a bad guy, "dunkgate" arrives.
Before I get started, here is this article written by Brian Windhorst, aka, "The Best (as opposed to Jon Scheyer whose nickname is "The Worst"). I'll wait for you to read the whole thing...
......
OK.
Regardless of whether or not these are the real motives behind taking the tapes, has anyone heard this point of view on any ESPN show? Any sports show? I haven't. So what has happened is this: The most likely explanation for such an odd story is not told by anyone other than the Cavs' beat writer. Never is it put forth by the national media as a possibility. The only way we talk about it is assuming the worst and asking, "what this means." We are asking what something that didn't happen means about a person as if we are sure it happened...which it didn't. This false demonstration of ridiculous insecurity is now on LeBron's permanent record. It's like a rumor getting started in school that you're gay or that you like someone when you're 10 years old and the more you deny it, the truer it becomes in the public eye. It's disgraceful. This is what the media is.
This situation infuriates me to no end. I don't want the tapes released. I want LeBron to come up to a podium and say to the media, "I am the best player since Jordan, I'm an unselfish winner, I'm a good role model...and you people feast upon me as if I fight dogs and yet roll out the red carpet for Kobe, who is selfish, not as good a player as me and has been accused of rape. I give an interview before and after every single game and get no love from you people. Fuck you all, I'm leaving."
I don't really want LeBron to say these things...that isn't really much of a high road. These are just the words that the media deserves. Congratulations guys, you earned them.
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