http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/8/26/1003381/sham-sports-blazers-title-triggers Completely laden with incentives: I guess this sheds light on the hold up.
As long as he doesn't incur a really major injury over the next couple of years. I think that's the point - he's worth the money as long as his health and drive hold out.
Shh, shh... it's okay. *hug* Everything's going to be all right. Now, I don't want to alarm you, but there's something I need to tell you about... the tooth fairy.
Except that some deals of similar size have been finalized much quicker than this one. I disagree with bedge in apparently trying to use this as a blanket excuse.
Deals of similar size without guarantee clauses? Absolutely. But, IMO, the fact that the team wanted some sort of a conditional guarantee on the full amount for the final year was what kept the deal from being done in mid July. Remember, too, that other similar sized deals for star players happened later in the signing period than Brandon's. For example, Yao Ming's extension off of his rookie scale deal wasn't signed until September. Dirk Nowitzki's extension off of his rookie scale deal wasn't signed until October. I don't see it as a blanket excuse. But a legitimate explanation of what took place? Absolutely.
BEdge said that "$80 million deals don't get done overnight". It said nothing about conditional guarantees, just "$80 million deals". In this instance, I suppose it could be the case, but the way B-Edge put it makes it a blanket statement, when this is anything but a blanket contract. "$80 million contracts like Roy's" would be an accurate statement.
For the purposes of absolute clarity, yes. But when you look at Ben's statement in context - after all the very next sentence talks about the conditions and 'complexities' - it was clear to me what he was trying to say. That's why I didn't take his sentence as a blanket statement. And I'll go back to history - the examples of Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and others provide ample evidence that not all $80 million deals to star players get done 'overnight'. Yes, sometimes they are signed immediately after the moratorium or very early in the process (Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, etc.) And other times they are signed very late in the process. Roy's got done in the first half of the timeframe in which such a signing is allowable.
Just because you know how to use caps lock doesn't mean you know anything about basketball. Anyone who couldn't understand negotiations as a part of the business side of professional sports needs to stay over at O-live and quite polluting here.. Furthermore, if it sounds trollish, it probably is, so don't F***ing touch it!
Every contract is clearly a different animal, and like you said it was clearly stated by Ben that this was a complex contract. The fact that it is a max deal has little bearing on the negotiation of the terms, in fact in this case the dollar amount was clearly the least of the Blazers concerns. They knew all along he was a max player, but they had some ideas on how to structure the deal.
