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nesli
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 Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:31 am Post subject: Bill Simmons:The first-annual Atrocious GM Summit:)) |
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| Quote: | When we were in Houston for All-Star Weekend, one of the marquee events was the annual Technology Summit at the Houstonian, featuring celebrities such as Mark Cuban, David Stern, George Bodenheimer, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and Anderson Cooper. Little was made of another gathering: The first-annual Atrocious GM Summit, held Sunday morning at the La Quinta Inn.
One of the better known worst GMs is none other than Isiah Thomas.
Our dream panel included Philadelphia's Billy King; former Raptors GM Rob Babcock; Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak; former Knicks GM Scott Layden; former Cavs GM Jim Paxson; Minnesota's Kevin McHale; former Orlando GM John Weisbrod; and, of course, Isiah Thomas of the New York Knicks. Sadly, Wes Unseld was unable to make it after he accidentally traded his first-class Delta Airlines ticket to Houston for three Southwest Airlines tickets to Atlanta.
(Note: We were going to invite Elgin Baylor, but he was ruled ineligible for the discussion after pulling off the Cassell-Jaric and Radmanovic-Wilcox heists. That's not the Elgin we once knew and loved. Come back to us, Elg.)
Of course, when the NBA asked me to moderate this discussion, I couldn't have been prouder. Here's a transcript of what happened:
Simmons: Guys, first of all, thanks for joining us today, it's an absolute honor to be here.
King: Just remember, if you do a good job for the next two hours, I'll give you a $25 million contract for six years!
(Everyone laughs.)
Simmons: Jim Paxson, let's start with you. Last February, you traded a 2007 first-round pick to Boston for Jiri Welsch. Four months later, after you were fired by the Cavs, they traded Welsch to Milwaukee for a 2006 second round pick. To my knowledge, that's never happened before. Walk us through that.
Paxson: Absolutely. When you're making a bad trade, there are some inherent elements that need to be there. First, are you putting your own short-team interests ahead of the long-term interests of the team? With the Welsch trade, there were rumors I might get fired, and we needed another body to make the playoffs … really, why would I care about protecting future No. 1 picks if I was probably getting canned?
McHale: Hear hear! I don't think we have a first-round pick until 2017. And I might trade that one this week.
Paxson: See, Kevin knows what I'm talking about here. The second element: Are you rolling the dice with someone with "potential," who has never contributed to a winning team? Jiri had bounced around the league and couldn't even crack Doc Rivers' regular rotation -- and Doc uses 11 guys a night. So that was in place. Third, and most important, are your fans going to be outraged when they hear about the trade and say things like, "What the hell?" and "How can we stop this guy, he's a menace?" That was there, too. And that's what made the trade so appealing. It's not often you can trade for someone who's worth half as much four months later.
Along those same lines, we aren't just trying to upset our fans, we're trying to confuse them. For instance, three years ago, I gave Kevin Ollie $15 million over five years. Now, he's a below-average guard with no real skills -- if you rated a point guard in eight different categories, he's probably a C-minus or below in each of them. If you're a Cavs fan, how are you supposed to react to that contract? Complete confusion, right? Well, those are good reactions. At least your fans are discussing the team. If the fans are talking about you, it doesn't matter if it's good or bad, at least they're talking.
Layden: And there's another element here, Jim: You want the fans to feel like they could do a better job than you. When I was in New York, every Knicks fan thought they could do better than me. Every one of them. And they were probably right. Well, you know what that really means? There's a small piece inside of them that says, "If this schmuck can run the Knicks, maybe some day, I can run the Knicks." And once they think that, you have them for life. Those are the people who keep buying tickets and jerseys and hats.
Simmons: Mitch, when you took over the Lakers, you had the best two players in the league and could have won 10 straight titles with the right moves. Instead, you couldn't get it done. Then you traded Shaq for 30 cents on the dollar; you gave cap-killing contracts to run-of-the-mill guys like Chris Mihm and Devean George; you blew all of your draft picks; you wasted the next three to four years of Kobe's prime by drafting a high school center over someone like Danny Granger, who could have helped right away; and then, you outdid yourself by trading Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins' useful expiring contract for Kwame Brown. But the Shaq-Kobe saga overshadowed everything; you haven't gotten enough credit for being a complete debacle. Does that bother you?
"Enough about Isiah, let's talk about me." (GM Mitch Kupchak)
Kupchak: I'd be lying if I said it didn't. When we made the Kwame trade, I was thinking to myself, "This is it, this is the one, now maybe people will start talking about me." Well, it didn't happen. Then the season starts, and Kwame's just a complete stiff … still, nothing. Then Phil [Jackson] goes on the record and calls Kwame a "p----." Nothing. People in Los Angeles just don't care. When you look at what I've done in L.A., it's amazing, really. I traded the best center in the history of basketball 19 months ago, and all we have to show for it is an unhappy Lamar Odom, Kwame and Brian Grant's eight-figure buyout. And yet, nobody mentions me. No offense, Isiah, but you don't realize how lucky you are -- when you screw up, everyone goes crazy. I built a team in which Smush Parker is our third-best player and the 10th-best guy on the Clippers would play 40 minutes a night for us -- yet does anyone ever talk about me? Of course not. It pisses me off.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060224
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Socks
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Joined: 01 Feb 2006
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Location: Bay Area, CA
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:35 am Post subject: |
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| Funny article, but honestly I'm just exhausted by the Mitch bashing. |
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B_Rabbit1212
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Joined: 26 Jun 2005
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Location: Santa Barbara / Davis
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:39 am Post subject: |
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| Since when has Chris Mihm's contract been cap space killing? |
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kenkoy
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:40 am Post subject: |
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| Just finished reading that. Very entertaining. Interesting how he conveniently left out Danny Ainge on that list of atrocious GM's. |
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LakersInFour
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Joined: 16 Apr 2001
Posts: 6725
Location: New Mexico
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:45 am Post subject: |
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Or Devean George's?
And did Shaq write that article? Because I'm pretty sure no one else considers him the best C that ever played the game.
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"It’s like going to the Getty and standing in front of Van Gogh’s Irises while some schmuck next to you critiques individual brush strokes. Just shut up already. The more you talk, the more you embarrass yourself." |
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angrypuppy
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:47 am Post subject: |
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re4ee
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Joined: 07 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:51 am Post subject: |
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| kenkoy wrote: | | Just finished reading that. Very entertaining. Interesting how he conveniently left out Danny Ainge on that list of atrocious GM's. |
He's a Bean town guy! His book "Now I Can Die In Peace", should make that clear!
BTW, there is a tool with way too much time on his hands with links to a lot of Simmon's BS! | Quote: | I'm a big fan of Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy), one of ESPN.com's Page 2 columnists. He's posted hundreds of insightful and entertaining articles since early 2001, and at least one of them is usually listed on ESPN's most sent stories page.
This index is designed to provide links to stories that feature some of his favorite players, teams, movies, actors, and phrases |
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Exick
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Joined: 17 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:53 am Post subject: |
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| kenkoy wrote: | | Just finished reading that. Very entertaining. Interesting how he conveniently left out Danny Ainge on that list of atrocious GM's. |
My first thought too.
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trmiv
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Joined: 19 Nov 2001
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Location: Orlando
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:55 am Post subject: |
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| kenkoy wrote: | | Just finished reading that. Very entertaining. Interesting how he conveniently left out Danny Ainge on that list of atrocious GM's. |
True. But at least he took shots at McHale, whom I'm sure he worships as a deity. |
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hiline
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| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:59 am Post subject: |
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Bill Simmons is a notorious Celtic homer and a Kobe basher. I can't stand that guy.
me  bill simmons |
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PhillyDoc
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Joined: 12 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 5:34 am Post subject: |
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| Simmons holds his blasts of the Celtics for the coach, Rivers, funny article in reality and maybe KG is really there for some inane offer this summer? |
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iml84myd8s
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Joined: 06 Aug 2005
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| Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:13 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Simmons: Mitch, when you took over the Lakers, you had the best two players in the league and could have won 10 straight titles with the right moves. Instead, you couldn't get it done. Then you traded Shaq for 30 cents on the dollar; you gave cap-killing contracts to run-of-the-mill guys like Chris Mihm and Devean George; you blew all of your draft picks; you wasted the next three to four years of Kobe's prime by drafting a high school center over someone like Danny Granger, who could have helped right away; and then, you outdid yourself by trading Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins' useful expiring contract for Kwame Brown. But the Shaq-Kobe saga overshadowed everything; you haven't gotten enough credit for being a complete debacle. Does that bother you? |
That's called hitting the nail on the head! Well said Simmons. |
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