It’s my least-favorite episode of the four, but it’s still pretty good.
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Al Harrington said he wanted out, and the Warriors have swung a deal to send the forward to the Knicks for Jamal Crawford.
Harrington went public with a trade demand just before the start of the season after privately urging Golden State to move him for months. New York had immediate interest, seeing the versatile and mobile Harrington as an ideal frontcourt fit in new coach Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system.
It will require the Knicks to part with Crawford, their leading scorer and another player they had pegged to flourish under D’Antoni. The Warriors, according to NBA front-office sources, see Crawford as a versatile guard who, although not a pure floor leader, can function well in coach Don Nelson’s system while Monta Ellis recovers from ankle surgery — and in tandem with Ellis once he returns.
Yet it’s believed that Walsh has multiple motivations for re-acquiring one of his favorites. Another sizable lure is Harrington’s contract, which pays him $9.2 million this season, $10 million next season and expires after the 2009-10 campaign. That meshes with New York’s intent to slice payroll and get as far under the salary cap as possible for the highly anticipated free-agent summer of 2010 to join the bidding for Cleveland’s LeBron James.
Crawford has a player option after this season that would extend his contract by two years and $19.4 million. He is likely to exercise that option, so the Knicks were smart to move him if the main goal is to cut salary prior to the summer of 2010, when a number of high-profile free agents may hit the market.
The combo guard is playing the best ball of his career, and at 28, he is in his prime. He should be a nice fit in Golden State with or without Monta Ellis at his side. Crawford can run the point, but his natural position is off guard. He’s a volume shooter, as he has only shot better than 42% once in his career. But when he gets hot, he’s an unstoppable scorer.
Al Harrington has seen his numbers decline over the last few seasons after falling out of favor with Don Nelson. He should be a good fit as a power forward in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo attack. He’s athletic and can hit the long ball pretty effectively. I’m not sure what this means for David Lee, who plays the same position as Harrington (albeit in a very different way). It’s possible that the Knicks will package Lee with Zach Randolph or Eddy Curry in order to sweeten the pot for potential trade partners. Getting rid of either contract would go a long way to clearing serious cap space in the near future.
Santonio Holmes can thank Hines Ward for this shot he took Thursday night in the Steelers’ 27-10 win over the Bungles.
Of course Browns and Falcons fans are probably like, “Wait a minute – that couldn’t have been Chris Crocker. The Chris Crocker we know would have gotten burnt for a long touchdown pass on that play.”
Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press has two separate thoughts on Rich Rodriguez’s recent comments that Michigan fans should “Get a life.”
But I am of two minds on Rodriguez’s comments. On one level, he is absolutely correct. The venom that you find on blogs or on talk radio is beyond fandom. It comes from a darker place: Anger, frustration, jealousy spit out in almost murderous tones — all of it masked by a Web name so no one has to admit who he is or where you can find him.
After all, these are college kids. They don’t get paid; they are, in some cases, one year out of high school. Compared to real issues — the economy is just one — their losing games is minor. Rodriguez is right about that.
On the other hand, if things were going well, no amount of hype would be too much for Rodriguez. The bigger the hoopla, the higher the ratings, the more precious the tickets — the happier he would be. The same guy who is saying “look at the economy” wasn’t trying to keep football in perspective when he broke his contract with West Virginia and took a huge one in Ann Arbor, including millions the school had to pay to free him from his WVU obligations.
He came here fluffed with hype, a whiz kid set to turn around a solid but stodgy program and gun the motor to a national championship. Instead, he got a little drunk on his own reviews, took a few shots to the chin and the gut, and is staggering home as night falls. He says “get a life.” The fans say “get a team.” And all most people want is to get this season over with.
I think this season was good for Rich Rod. He got knocked on his ass for the first time in his career and now he realizes that he can’t plug just any player into his system and make it run like a corvette. And let’s be honest – he got what he deserved for leaving WVU in the lurch.
But all this will be moot in a couple of years. He still has plenty of recruiting power at Michigan and he’ll eventually land the quarterback he needs to run his spread option offense. The Wolverines will be relevant again, but it won’t be this weekend in Columbus.
Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg Times makes a great point that the Heisman Trophy shouldn’t be voted on until after the bowl games have been played.
Every year, the voters are forced to decide the winner too darned early.
For years, this has been the most annoying thing of all about the Heisman. The committee just can’t wait to give it out. The movie is still going on, and already, these guys want to toss Academy Awards at the screen.
This year, for instance, voters are supposed to have their ballots returned by Dec. 10. At least the voters can wait until after Tebow and his Florida teammates play top-ranked Alabama for the SEC title and until either Bradford or Harrell or Texas’ Colt McCoy play for the Big 12 title.
On the other hand, the national championship game won’t be played until Jan. 8, almost a month after the deadline. Who knows? Perhaps it will be Tebow vs. Bradford. Maybe Tebow vs. Harrell.
Just asking here, but shouldn’t that game be factored into the voting?
In his article, Shelton has a table that illustrates how several winners in the past decade (Ohio State’s Troy Smith, USC’s Reggie Bush, Oklahoma’s Jason White, Nebraska’s Eric Crouch) all won the Heisman and then turned in average to atrocious bowl game performances.
He brings up a fantastic point – why isn’t the national championship factored in to Heisman voting? It’s supposed to be the most important game in the college football season, yet it doesn’t play a factor in determining who the best player in college football is? It’s not fair for a player to lose the Heisman with one bad performance, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to (and I’m borrowing Shelton’s point) hand out season awards when the season isn’t even over.
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