<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The brief basketball affair between the Orlando Magic and Darko Milicic apparently has ended in a bitter, nuclear breakup. <font size=""5"">After the club withdrew its qualifying offer to him on Tuesday, Marc Cornstein, Milicic's agent, said there was "no chance" of Milicic playing again for the Magic "as long as Otis Smith is the Orlando Magic's general manager. "There's no chance. Put it in big capital letters."</font> Cornstein called Smith a "liar" and said his dealings with Milicic were "deceitful, disrespectful . . . a disgrace." Smith released the following statement after learning Cornstein blasted him and the Magic: "Our goals remains the same: to sign a free agent and try to retain Darko. It hasn't changed." Things have apparently changed for Milicic. He is now an unrestricted free agent and can sign with any team, but Cornstein says Darko doesn't want to play for the Magic -- even if they can trade players to create more salary-cap room on his behalf. Cornstein said he was particularly upset about how Smith informed him Tuesday of their decision via an e-mail. "This is how I found out," Cornstein said. "That's how he conducts business." Cornstein said that after the Magic failed to contact him when the free-agent signing period began, "Darko said he didn't want to play in Orlando anymore. He didn't want to be there in the end because they didn't want him there." The Magic said that Milicic, 22, was a priority and talked about teaming him with center Dwight Howard. According to Tony Dutt, Rashard Lewis' agent, the Magic were working on a sign-and-trade deal with Lewis' former team, the Seattle SuperSonics, trying to trade players to make room to re-sign Milicic or sign and trade him elsewhere because they could match any offer. Apparently Smith can't make it work, and the Magic now risk losing Milicic for nothing. </div> Source: Orlando Sentinel
Dammit Otis. just kiss the guys ass till he signs a new contract. I'm really startin to hate Darko's Agent, apparently wants Darko in the 10 million dollar area when the guy isnt even a guaranteed starter. Don't get me wrong, I love Darko. But his agent is just startin to piss me off and apparently Otis Smith as well.
I just wonder if it is Darko who said he won't play for the Magic or is it just his agent? I'm seeing alot of articles with Cornstein talking but has anyone seen or heard anything from Darko himself?
<div class="quote_poster">TheHighness Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I just wonder if it is Darko who said he won't play for the Magic or is it just his agent? I'm seeing alot of articles with Cornstein talking but has anyone seen or heard anything from Darko himself?</div> EXACTLY. I haven't heard anything about what Darko has said, just what Cornstein has said. Cornstein is just pissed that they lost all leverage. Memphis could give them a deal over the MLE, but 6-8 mil is about the best that they can expect to get. I'm sure if Otis has Dwight call Darko up and tell him the situation that we had to renounce Darko's qualifying offer in order to get a S&T out of Seattle to get enough cap space to resign Darko, while still improving the team by getting Shard and how much he wants Darko to stay in Orlando, Darko will consider it. Only the Grizzlies can really make a good offer for him. If we get enough money back from the S&T then we will likely still have the best offer on the table for Darko and his agent. It won't be in the $10 mil range, but no one in their right mind would start him out at $10 mil. His agent is a douche.
<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">His agent is a douche.</div> amen to that. Just tryin to be a greedy agent. Liek I said, a non starter making 10 million a year?? kiss my ass (even though he'll probably get it. lol)
<div class="quote_poster">The Walrus Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">amen to that. Just tryin to be a greedy agent. Liek I said, a non starter making 10 million a year?? kiss my ass (even though he'll probably get it. lol)</div> First of all, he is a starter caliber player. Brian Hill is just too dumb to realize it. No one is gonna offer him $10 mil a year on avg. Magic would be smart to offer around the qualifying offer for the first year(around 6.8-7 mil) with 10% increases each year for 5 years. We wouldn't necessarily be overpaying him(supposedly Vareajeo has gotten an offer above the MLE) and he gets to stay in Orlando!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting GatorsowntheNCAA:</div><div class="quote_post">EXACTLY. I haven't heard anything about what Darko has said, just what Cornstein has said. Cornstein is just pissed that they lost all leverage. Memphis could give them a deal over the MLE, but 6-8 mil is about the best that they can expect to get. </div> That's all it is, IMO. All this talk about him being blindsided by Otis is retarded, because everybody knew the Magic were going to try and sign Rashard. The only question was which player they'd pursue first and its now clear that bringing in Shard was a greater priority than re-signing Darko. I don't see how that means that they're not committed to bringing Milicic back though: if they had signed him first, I'm sure they'd have tried to acquire Lewis as well. I think the whole thing is overblown, but I don't know if its fixable. Darko's dumbass agent really seems pissed off.
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">That's all it is, IMO. All this talk about him being blindsided by Otis is retarded, because everybody knew the Magic were going to try and sign Rashard. The only question was which player they'd pursue first and its now clear that bringing in Shard was a greater priority than re-signing Darko. I don't see how that means that they're not committed to bringing Milicic back though: if they had signed him first, I'm sure they'd have tried to acquire Lewis as well. I think the whole thing is overblown, but I don't know if its fixable. Darko's dumbass agent really seems pissed off.</div> Well the thing is, the Magic couldn't have signed Darko and Shard without getting a S&T done. In order to do that the Magic had to show that they would sign Shard outright for the Sonics to even consider doing a S&T to the Magic and they couldn't do that without renouncing Darko's qualifying offer. Now Seattle has to work on a deal with us if they want to get any compensation for Shard. They can't go around to other teams to see what team would give the best offer. That was really the only way that they could get enough cap to get both Shard and Darko. So hopefully Otis is working out a good enough deal for both parties to give us enough cap to give Darko a good offer. Otis still says that signing Darko is still a priority and I expect us to be able to give him a legit offer around July 11th-12th. Honestly Cornstein might have given Otis the leverage to lowball him even more with this comment, because the market value for Darko certainly is several milion less than Cornstein was hoping. The Magic still have his bird rights, so we can still go over the cap to sign him. I'm just hoping his agent comes to his senses and cooperates with Otis to get a deal done.
btw, Cornstein is also Fran's American agent. Can we just not deal with any of his clients anymore? He's a total joke of an agent.
This guy is an idiot. He's basically forcing Darko not to resign. They just want money. Darko needs to step up and personally say what he wants to do.
<div class="quote_poster">CLos Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This guy is an idiot. He's basically forcing Darko not to resign. They just want money. Darko needs to step up and personally say what he wants to do.</div> They aren't going to get money unless Memphis is willing to give them $10 mil a year and I don't see them even contemplating giving him 10 mil a year.
I don't see Memphis desperately wanting Darko for $10 mil. I can see them giving him about 8 just like what we would try to offer him. This is getting ridiculous. Lose the agent Darko.
<div class="quote_poster">CLos Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This guy is an idiot. He's basically forcing Darko not to resign. They just want money. Darko needs to step up and personally say what he wants to do.</div> which is unfortunately, probably to make a sh.itload of money.
<div class="quote_poster">The Walrus Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">which is unfortunately, probably to make a sh.itload of money. </div> Again, who is under the cap that can offer him a sh.tload of money? His best case scenario is Orlando signs him to S&T him or Orlando/Memphis signs him outright for under $10 mil.
<div class="quote_poster">CLos Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah, do that and get Pau Gasol...............</div> You aren't reading what I am saying. Memphis is able to sign him straight up. Why the **** would they trade Pau Gasol for someone that they can sign straight up? They would give us garbage(like we're giving Seattle) for Darko. Also why the hell would they trade Pau Gasol for Darko Milcic in the first place? It'd be a sign and trade to a different team that doesn't have more than the MLE.
<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">You aren't reading what I am saying. Memphis is able to sign him straight up. Why the **** would they trade Pau Gasol for someone that they can sign straight up? They would give us garbage(like we're giving Seattle) for Darko. Also why the hell would they trade Pau Gasol for Darko Milcic? It'd be a sign and trade to a different team that doesn't have more than the MLE.</div> I'm only joking. Darko is now an UFA so he can go anywhere he wants.
<div class="quote_poster">CLos Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I'm only joking. Darko is now an UFA so he can go anywhere he wants.</div> For less money. The only 2 places he could go where he can get above the Mid level exception is Orlando and Memphis. Then consider that Memphis hasn't even given him an offer yet, looks like Orlando will give him the most money. I wonder how serious his agent is about not playing in Orlando.
He's probably all talk. I see him talking that garbage until they figure that they can go to either Memphis which is not a good team or Orlando which is starting to do big things. I don't see Darko going anywhere else to be honest with you. They're just trying to make the most money but at the end Darko will have to settle for less and prove that he's worth $10 mil.
