tlongII
10-23-2009, 12:37 PM
http://portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=125627237344383400
Let’s run the gamut as we enter another very busy sports weekend ...
• The reason negotiations for LaMarcus Aldridge’s contract took so long is tied to a complicated procedure that determines what the NBA’s maximum salary will be next season, when the Trail Blazer forward’s extension will kick in.
A max salary player can, in the first year of his new contract, make the greater of 105 percent of his salary the previous season, or 25 percent (with 0-6 years of service), 30 percent (7-9) or 35 percent (10 or more) of the salary cap, which is $57.7 million this season. The player can get annual increases of 10.5 percent through the life of the contract.
It’s why veterans such as Tracy McGrady ($23.24 million this season), Jermaine O’Neal ($23 million) and Kevin Garnett ($16.4 million) can make more than Chris Paul, who will start at about $15 million and end at $18 million in his five-year, $82-million extension. The older veterans are working on extensions of extensions.
The salary cap is expected to go down next July, when the new figure will be announced.
An educated guess is that Portland’s Brandon Roy – who signed a five-year max deal in the summer – will start at about $13.8 million per season and work his way up to $16.6 million for a total package of about $76 million.
If Aldridge reaps $65 million (before incentives) over five years, he’ll start at a shade under $12 million and increase to $14 million by the final year.
That would mean Aldridge winds up at about 85 percent of the maximum salary. I see that as fair to both sides. He’s not a max contract player, but he is one of the best young talents at his position in the game.
The process took awhile, but it worked after all.
• Here is General Manager Kevin Pritchard’s reasoning behind keeping rookie point guard Patty Mills and releasing veterans Ime Udoka and Jarron Collins, even though Portland has three veteran point men on its roster:
“Patty has a lot of upside. He played really well in international competition. We’re always looking for talented young players. We’re going to take a look at him.”
But not for a while. Mills, an Australian who played collegiately at Saint Mary’s, is recuperating from July surgery to repair a broken foot. Doctors are saying he’ll be ready to begin practice in one to two months, but if he plays at all this season, it will probably be in the D-League (and not in Europe – that is prohibited, since he is under contract with the Blazers).
Was this a case of Pritchard and coach Nate McMillan being overruled by owner Paul Allen, as has been reported?
“Like we always do, we talk about everything all together,” Pritchard says. “Mr. Allen has input. Nate has input. The assistant coaches have input. We don’t always agree, but we always unite.”
The Blazers save a little more than $300,000 by signing Mills to a rookie deal. Was that a consideration?
“It’s always part of it,” Pritchard says. “I wouldn’t say it was the dominant factor.”
Whatever the reasons, the decision doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Udoka and Collins were veterans who would have been satisfied with whatever roles McMillan had for them this season. They’d have been valuable in the case of injury. Mills’ earliest contributions will come next year, and I wonder if his potential is greater than that of Jerryd Bayless, whose playing time will come mostly through injuries to those ahead of him this season.
For that matter, will Mills be better than the maligned Sergio Rodriguez, jettisoned to Sacramento in the offseason?
“I’m going to keep (Udoka and Collins) until the end of the preseason,” McMillan told me two weeks ago. “I like both of them, and I want to try to play both of them so their performance can let us make a decision. Both guys fit as far as character and as far as bringing experience to the team. Right now, we can’t keep both of them.”
Right now, the Blazers are keeping neither of them.
If that was Allen’s idea, somebody should have shouted him down on it.
• If you’re thinking Portland’s lackluster preseason indicates a disappointing regular season ahead, be aware that the Blazers had a 3-5 exhibition record in 1977-78, the season they started 50-10 before injuries brought down a likely repeat NBA championship squad. And they were 3-3 in 1991-92, the season in which the Clyde Drexler-led Blazers went 57-25 and lost to Chicago in the NBA finals. (Portland’s 1977 title team was 5-3 in the preseason.)
• Sports Illustrated has high expectations for the Blazers. In its preseason issue, SI picks Portland to win the Northwest Division and finish with the third-best record in the Western Conference, behind the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio.
SI picks the Lakers over the Spurs, and Boston over Cleveland, in the conference finals, then the Celtics over the Lakers for the title.
• The NBA gave up little on the negotiating table, but it appears its regular referees will be back to work by the time the regular season opens on Tuesday.
The league’s 57 regular refs are expected to approve a new labor agreement during a vote Friday in New Jersey. If the deal passes, the refs will be put through a quickie training camp in New York City before opening night.
You can say the refs caved, but they also illustrated their value to the league through the problems the replacement refs had maintaining control during the preseason. Three of the league’s head coaches were fined heavily for comments about the scabs – Charlotte’s Larry Brown ($60,000), Orlando’s Stan Van Gundy ($35,000) and Memphis’ Lionel Hollins ($25,000).
“I never thought I’d be glad to see Dick Bavetta and Joey Crawford again,” Portland’s Joel Przybilla cracked after Sunday’s exhibition against Utah.
The referees’ union had sought better severence and pension packages, but NBA negotiators didn’t budge much through the negotiation process.
“They didn’t make a lot of concessions,” says one regular referee, who asks for anonymity, “but we realize we’re in tough economic times. It was time to go back to work. No one on our side is thrilled with the deal, but we proved our point. The games are better with us than without us.
“Every 15 or 20 years, (league reps) needed to be reminded we’re an elite group. We’ll live to fight another day. We took them 15 rounds. It was worth it.”
• The NBA isn’t the only league having trouble with its officiating. The Big Sky Conference issued a statement this week after poor calls by referees may have cost Eastern Washington the game in a 41-34 loss to Montana last Saturday.
The game’s officiating “was not up to the standards we expect and require,” Commissioner Doug Fullerton said. “We don’t normally comment on officiating, nor do we plan to regularly do so in the future. However, there are cases where it is warranted, and this is one.”
Fullerton said the league office examined about six controversial calls, saying the refs got it wrong at least twice – on an unsportsmanlike conduct call on an Eastern receiver as he scored a third-quarter touchdown, and on a fourth-quarter late-hit call against an Eagle tackler who was blocked in the back by a Montana player.
• It appears as if Hermon Bhrane, the 19-year-old German tennis standout whose story was chronicled in last month’s Portland Tribune, will land at the University of Portland.
Bhrane – who has temporarily returned to Germany – has told UP officials she will accept a scholarship offer to play for the Pilots. Bhrane would enroll in school in January and be eligible for the 2010 season if academic requirements are taken care of.
A former German junior champion who turned down a scholarship offer from UCLA in 2008, Bhrane spent much of the summer in Portland with an aunt with hopes she could find a sponsor to back her on the women’s pro circuit. She also was open to the possibility of playing college tennis, and since the Tribune article appeared has received offers from Oregon and Washington as well as the Pilots.
• Jerry Glanville’s future as head football coach at Portland State could be riding on what happens in the Vikings’ final four games this season. Glanville is 9-20 in his 2 1/2 seasons, including 2-5 this season. He has one more year left on his contract.
“There’s no determination at this point,” PSU Athletic Director Torre Chisholm says. “We’ll get to the end of this year and evaluate where we are.
“Nobody likes the record, least of all Jerry and his staff. But there’s still a third of the season left, and we have a lot of young players. As they play more games, they’ll mature. I’ll wait until the end of the year to assess where the program’s going.”
I don’t think the Vikings can afford to let Glanville enter a lame-duck situation next year. It’s too harmful to recruiting. They’ll either have to offer an extension or let him go.
Don’t expect Glanville to quit.
“I won’t surrender,” the 68-year-old coach said after PSU’s 44-23 loss to Northern Arizona last Saturday at PGE Park.
• Oregon State’s annual Pape Grand Slam February three-game baseball series – in 2010, the opponent will be Tennessee – has been moved from PGE Park to Goss Stadium in Corvallis because of renovation to the Portland facility.
The Beavers will play at PGE Park next season, however – in a Civil War matchup with Oregon on May 26.
• A memorial service for Luella Andros – widow of the late Dee Andros – is set for 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 at the Corvallis Country Club.
Luella, 81, died of lung cancer last Saturday on what would have been her late husband’s 85th birthday.
“Lu died at 1:30 p.m. on a college football Saturday,” says her long-time friend, Scott Spiegelberg, who quarterbacked for Dee Andros at Oregon State. “I thought that was fitting.”
A soft-spoken, dignified, well-respected woman in the Corvallis community, Lu Andros was always a welcome sight in the press box at Beaver football games. She will be missed.
• Neil Lomax didn’t expect a load of victories when he volunteered to serve as offensive coordinator at Roosevelt High, and he hasn’t gotten them. Under first-year head coach Christian Swain, the Roughriders are 0-6, have been shut out four times and have been outscored 278-38.
But the former Pro Bowl quarterback has made a difference with a program that doesn’t have the advantages of most of its opposing schools.
“Overall, it’s been a great experience,” says Lomax, a Lake Oswego resident. “I’ve enjoyed working with Christian, and I’ve learned a lot about the culture in that community. There’s a different priority on sports and education and other things that we take for granted in the suburbs.
“Christian told me right away, ‘Ignore the scoreboard.’ I’ve learned the thing I have to do is love the kids up, coach them up and try to teach them some lessons in life.”
“Neil has done a great job for us,” Swain says. “I’ve really enjoyed having him around. He comes in six, seven days a week, has put a lot of time and energy into the kids. He helps me set the game plan every week.
“He’s been a real positive influence on the kids. He’s made lemonade out of lemons in a lot of ways for us.”
Roosevelt has a decent chance in two of its remaining three games – at Cleveland on Friday night and against Marshall at home in the season finale on Nov. 6.
“We’re matching up apples for apples in those games,” Lomax says.
There’s hope for the future of the Roughrider program. A fundraising drive to install FieldTurf is almost completed.
“We’re hoping to be done by the summer,” Swain says.
Lomax says he’d like to return next season.
“I don’t know what my calling will be, but right now, I want to,” he says.
• Legendary Slabtown sports denizen Vince Pesky is at home recovering after a heart attack hospitalized him for a day.
“It’s tough to get around, but I’m hanging in there,” says Pesky, younger brother of Boston Red Sox great Johnny Pesky. “Johnny has been calling just about every day, wondering if he should fly out to see me.”
Vince Pesky is 88. Johnny Pesky is 90. Their older sister, Catherine Ivison, 94, is caring for her kid brother as he recuperates.
Neither of the Pesky’s parents lived to be 65.
“I tell everyone, it’s eating all that garlic and onions over the years,” Vince says.
• On Nov. 21, two pro wrestling groups – D.O.A. Wrestling and the Northwest Wrestling Alliance – will join together for a 73-hour marathon charity event called “Wrestling for Hunger.” The cause is the Oregon Food Bank, and the goal is to raise 2,000 pounds of food in preparation for the holiday season.
The site is the Fight Factory at 4943 N.E. 105th Ave. The opening bell is at 8 p.m. on Nov. 21, but fans can see continuous action through 9 p.m. on Nov. 24. I’m assuming free cups of coffee will be provided.
Twenty wrestlers will join together to attempt to set a Guiness Book of World Records mark for continuous wrestling.
Let’s run the gamut as we enter another very busy sports weekend ...
• The reason negotiations for LaMarcus Aldridge’s contract took so long is tied to a complicated procedure that determines what the NBA’s maximum salary will be next season, when the Trail Blazer forward’s extension will kick in.
A max salary player can, in the first year of his new contract, make the greater of 105 percent of his salary the previous season, or 25 percent (with 0-6 years of service), 30 percent (7-9) or 35 percent (10 or more) of the salary cap, which is $57.7 million this season. The player can get annual increases of 10.5 percent through the life of the contract.
It’s why veterans such as Tracy McGrady ($23.24 million this season), Jermaine O’Neal ($23 million) and Kevin Garnett ($16.4 million) can make more than Chris Paul, who will start at about $15 million and end at $18 million in his five-year, $82-million extension. The older veterans are working on extensions of extensions.
The salary cap is expected to go down next July, when the new figure will be announced.
An educated guess is that Portland’s Brandon Roy – who signed a five-year max deal in the summer – will start at about $13.8 million per season and work his way up to $16.6 million for a total package of about $76 million.
If Aldridge reaps $65 million (before incentives) over five years, he’ll start at a shade under $12 million and increase to $14 million by the final year.
That would mean Aldridge winds up at about 85 percent of the maximum salary. I see that as fair to both sides. He’s not a max contract player, but he is one of the best young talents at his position in the game.
The process took awhile, but it worked after all.
• Here is General Manager Kevin Pritchard’s reasoning behind keeping rookie point guard Patty Mills and releasing veterans Ime Udoka and Jarron Collins, even though Portland has three veteran point men on its roster:
“Patty has a lot of upside. He played really well in international competition. We’re always looking for talented young players. We’re going to take a look at him.”
But not for a while. Mills, an Australian who played collegiately at Saint Mary’s, is recuperating from July surgery to repair a broken foot. Doctors are saying he’ll be ready to begin practice in one to two months, but if he plays at all this season, it will probably be in the D-League (and not in Europe – that is prohibited, since he is under contract with the Blazers).
Was this a case of Pritchard and coach Nate McMillan being overruled by owner Paul Allen, as has been reported?
“Like we always do, we talk about everything all together,” Pritchard says. “Mr. Allen has input. Nate has input. The assistant coaches have input. We don’t always agree, but we always unite.”
The Blazers save a little more than $300,000 by signing Mills to a rookie deal. Was that a consideration?
“It’s always part of it,” Pritchard says. “I wouldn’t say it was the dominant factor.”
Whatever the reasons, the decision doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Udoka and Collins were veterans who would have been satisfied with whatever roles McMillan had for them this season. They’d have been valuable in the case of injury. Mills’ earliest contributions will come next year, and I wonder if his potential is greater than that of Jerryd Bayless, whose playing time will come mostly through injuries to those ahead of him this season.
For that matter, will Mills be better than the maligned Sergio Rodriguez, jettisoned to Sacramento in the offseason?
“I’m going to keep (Udoka and Collins) until the end of the preseason,” McMillan told me two weeks ago. “I like both of them, and I want to try to play both of them so their performance can let us make a decision. Both guys fit as far as character and as far as bringing experience to the team. Right now, we can’t keep both of them.”
Right now, the Blazers are keeping neither of them.
If that was Allen’s idea, somebody should have shouted him down on it.
• If you’re thinking Portland’s lackluster preseason indicates a disappointing regular season ahead, be aware that the Blazers had a 3-5 exhibition record in 1977-78, the season they started 50-10 before injuries brought down a likely repeat NBA championship squad. And they were 3-3 in 1991-92, the season in which the Clyde Drexler-led Blazers went 57-25 and lost to Chicago in the NBA finals. (Portland’s 1977 title team was 5-3 in the preseason.)
• Sports Illustrated has high expectations for the Blazers. In its preseason issue, SI picks Portland to win the Northwest Division and finish with the third-best record in the Western Conference, behind the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio.
SI picks the Lakers over the Spurs, and Boston over Cleveland, in the conference finals, then the Celtics over the Lakers for the title.
• The NBA gave up little on the negotiating table, but it appears its regular referees will be back to work by the time the regular season opens on Tuesday.
The league’s 57 regular refs are expected to approve a new labor agreement during a vote Friday in New Jersey. If the deal passes, the refs will be put through a quickie training camp in New York City before opening night.
You can say the refs caved, but they also illustrated their value to the league through the problems the replacement refs had maintaining control during the preseason. Three of the league’s head coaches were fined heavily for comments about the scabs – Charlotte’s Larry Brown ($60,000), Orlando’s Stan Van Gundy ($35,000) and Memphis’ Lionel Hollins ($25,000).
“I never thought I’d be glad to see Dick Bavetta and Joey Crawford again,” Portland’s Joel Przybilla cracked after Sunday’s exhibition against Utah.
The referees’ union had sought better severence and pension packages, but NBA negotiators didn’t budge much through the negotiation process.
“They didn’t make a lot of concessions,” says one regular referee, who asks for anonymity, “but we realize we’re in tough economic times. It was time to go back to work. No one on our side is thrilled with the deal, but we proved our point. The games are better with us than without us.
“Every 15 or 20 years, (league reps) needed to be reminded we’re an elite group. We’ll live to fight another day. We took them 15 rounds. It was worth it.”
• The NBA isn’t the only league having trouble with its officiating. The Big Sky Conference issued a statement this week after poor calls by referees may have cost Eastern Washington the game in a 41-34 loss to Montana last Saturday.
The game’s officiating “was not up to the standards we expect and require,” Commissioner Doug Fullerton said. “We don’t normally comment on officiating, nor do we plan to regularly do so in the future. However, there are cases where it is warranted, and this is one.”
Fullerton said the league office examined about six controversial calls, saying the refs got it wrong at least twice – on an unsportsmanlike conduct call on an Eastern receiver as he scored a third-quarter touchdown, and on a fourth-quarter late-hit call against an Eagle tackler who was blocked in the back by a Montana player.
• It appears as if Hermon Bhrane, the 19-year-old German tennis standout whose story was chronicled in last month’s Portland Tribune, will land at the University of Portland.
Bhrane – who has temporarily returned to Germany – has told UP officials she will accept a scholarship offer to play for the Pilots. Bhrane would enroll in school in January and be eligible for the 2010 season if academic requirements are taken care of.
A former German junior champion who turned down a scholarship offer from UCLA in 2008, Bhrane spent much of the summer in Portland with an aunt with hopes she could find a sponsor to back her on the women’s pro circuit. She also was open to the possibility of playing college tennis, and since the Tribune article appeared has received offers from Oregon and Washington as well as the Pilots.
• Jerry Glanville’s future as head football coach at Portland State could be riding on what happens in the Vikings’ final four games this season. Glanville is 9-20 in his 2 1/2 seasons, including 2-5 this season. He has one more year left on his contract.
“There’s no determination at this point,” PSU Athletic Director Torre Chisholm says. “We’ll get to the end of this year and evaluate where we are.
“Nobody likes the record, least of all Jerry and his staff. But there’s still a third of the season left, and we have a lot of young players. As they play more games, they’ll mature. I’ll wait until the end of the year to assess where the program’s going.”
I don’t think the Vikings can afford to let Glanville enter a lame-duck situation next year. It’s too harmful to recruiting. They’ll either have to offer an extension or let him go.
Don’t expect Glanville to quit.
“I won’t surrender,” the 68-year-old coach said after PSU’s 44-23 loss to Northern Arizona last Saturday at PGE Park.
• Oregon State’s annual Pape Grand Slam February three-game baseball series – in 2010, the opponent will be Tennessee – has been moved from PGE Park to Goss Stadium in Corvallis because of renovation to the Portland facility.
The Beavers will play at PGE Park next season, however – in a Civil War matchup with Oregon on May 26.
• A memorial service for Luella Andros – widow of the late Dee Andros – is set for 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 at the Corvallis Country Club.
Luella, 81, died of lung cancer last Saturday on what would have been her late husband’s 85th birthday.
“Lu died at 1:30 p.m. on a college football Saturday,” says her long-time friend, Scott Spiegelberg, who quarterbacked for Dee Andros at Oregon State. “I thought that was fitting.”
A soft-spoken, dignified, well-respected woman in the Corvallis community, Lu Andros was always a welcome sight in the press box at Beaver football games. She will be missed.
• Neil Lomax didn’t expect a load of victories when he volunteered to serve as offensive coordinator at Roosevelt High, and he hasn’t gotten them. Under first-year head coach Christian Swain, the Roughriders are 0-6, have been shut out four times and have been outscored 278-38.
But the former Pro Bowl quarterback has made a difference with a program that doesn’t have the advantages of most of its opposing schools.
“Overall, it’s been a great experience,” says Lomax, a Lake Oswego resident. “I’ve enjoyed working with Christian, and I’ve learned a lot about the culture in that community. There’s a different priority on sports and education and other things that we take for granted in the suburbs.
“Christian told me right away, ‘Ignore the scoreboard.’ I’ve learned the thing I have to do is love the kids up, coach them up and try to teach them some lessons in life.”
“Neil has done a great job for us,” Swain says. “I’ve really enjoyed having him around. He comes in six, seven days a week, has put a lot of time and energy into the kids. He helps me set the game plan every week.
“He’s been a real positive influence on the kids. He’s made lemonade out of lemons in a lot of ways for us.”
Roosevelt has a decent chance in two of its remaining three games – at Cleveland on Friday night and against Marshall at home in the season finale on Nov. 6.
“We’re matching up apples for apples in those games,” Lomax says.
There’s hope for the future of the Roughrider program. A fundraising drive to install FieldTurf is almost completed.
“We’re hoping to be done by the summer,” Swain says.
Lomax says he’d like to return next season.
“I don’t know what my calling will be, but right now, I want to,” he says.
• Legendary Slabtown sports denizen Vince Pesky is at home recovering after a heart attack hospitalized him for a day.
“It’s tough to get around, but I’m hanging in there,” says Pesky, younger brother of Boston Red Sox great Johnny Pesky. “Johnny has been calling just about every day, wondering if he should fly out to see me.”
Vince Pesky is 88. Johnny Pesky is 90. Their older sister, Catherine Ivison, 94, is caring for her kid brother as he recuperates.
Neither of the Pesky’s parents lived to be 65.
“I tell everyone, it’s eating all that garlic and onions over the years,” Vince says.
• On Nov. 21, two pro wrestling groups – D.O.A. Wrestling and the Northwest Wrestling Alliance – will join together for a 73-hour marathon charity event called “Wrestling for Hunger.” The cause is the Oregon Food Bank, and the goal is to raise 2,000 pounds of food in preparation for the holiday season.
The site is the Fight Factory at 4943 N.E. 105th Ave. The opening bell is at 8 p.m. on Nov. 21, but fans can see continuous action through 9 p.m. on Nov. 24. I’m assuming free cups of coffee will be provided.
Twenty wrestlers will join together to attempt to set a Guiness Book of World Records mark for continuous wrestling.