Originally Posted by
GSH
A lot of people in the league understand what Manu brings to the floor, and to the locker room. But few understand it better than Brett Brown. And I'm sure he didn't have to work too hard to convince Bryan Colangelo that it would be worth throwing some money at a chance to bring Manu in to be an example for the young players on that team. He's a competitor, and he still goes all-out. Those guys have never seen anything like that in a Sixers uniform. I don't think there was any attempt to screw the Spurs. I think that the Sixers had cap space, and Brown legitimately wanted to use a chunk of it to bring Manu in.
And from what we heard, even if the Sixers hadn't offered what they did, there were still other teams that were offering him a LOT more than the room exception. No matter what people here thought, signing him that cheap was never going to happen. Remember, a lot of people here (like most of them) thought the Spurs could legitimately afford Conley, and/or several other players who got grossly overpaid. The spike in the cap put a lot of money into the pool, and it gave Manu a shot at a huge payday. I can't fault him for getting it. Those other teams came looking for him.