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Nice article...And I'm glad the Spurs might get a chance to show him some appreciation by sending him some MLE love at a more reasonable rate.
Buck Harvey: If Barry returns to the Spurs — this time it's his choice
Web Posted: 02/21/2008 10:47 PM CST
San Antonio Express-News
Brent Barry will be free soon. The Sonics have waived him, and he can sign with any team after a 48-hour period.
Any team except the Spurs, of course. Because they traded him, they wouldn't be able to re-sign him for 30 days.
There are reasons to think Barry will wait. But he has every right to weigh his options and rethink what he wants to do. After all, he's been hearing trade rumors for several years.
Now it's his turn to decide.
Barry wasn't particularly happy when he heard he'd been traded Wednesday, but it's not his nature to stay angry. Besides, he's been around long enough to understand the business.
He understood it almost as soon as he signed a four-year, $19 million contract with the Spurs. He started in a shooting slump, and it seemed from that moment on as if the Spurs were looking to dump his contract.
Two years ago, just before the trade deadline, Gregg Popovich called to tell him he had been traded to New Orleans for J.R. Smith. "I wish there had been a local bar that was open," Barry said at the time, "but it was 10 in the morning."
Shortly after Popovich called back with other news: Never mind. The trade had fallen through, and Barry had an hour to join the Spurs at the airport.
Barry said the shock turned him into a better player. But last season he was again linked to trade rumors, this time to the Clippers for Corey Maggette. When Popovich tried to put an end to all such talk, saying there would be no trades, Barry was skeptical.
"We'll see," Barry said then. "I believe Pop when he's suggesting a good wine. I believe Pop when he's telling me a good political book to read. When it comes to something like this, I personally want to wait until the deadline passes. I say it tongue-in-cheek, and I think it's pretty fair."
Pretty funny, too, which is typical of Barry.
Nothing changed even after he won his second ring. A preseason article last fall in the Express-News noted that Barry was coming off his best season with the Spurs, "but could be a trade asset in the final year of contract."
He was this week.
Through it all Barry hustled, and he stroked his set shot, and he made the Spurs versatile. Others have noticed. The Suns think they have a chance at him now, as does Golden State.
Both franchises can argue they have more playing time for Barry than the Spurs do now, and they would not be wrong. The Spurs don't need Barry the way they needed Kurt Thomas.
But the Spurs missed Barry this season when he twice injured the same calf. He changed games with his 43 percent average from the 3-point line, and the Spurs could have used his ballhandling, too, especially when Tony Parker was out.
So the Spurs should want him back, and maybe this is a Jerry Stackhouse arrangement. The Seattle general manager who traded for and then waived Barry, Sam Presti, once worked for R.C. Buford.
Why this would be more likely to pass an NBA inspection: Unlike Stackhouse, who blabbed about how he would return to Dallas, thus scuttling his deal, Barry would be too smart for that.
Then again, perhaps the Spurs don't see a need to fix his return. Barry and his family are entrenched in San Antonio.
Barry should also want to play with teammates he's known for years, as well as defend his le. And then there's his injury; waiting 30 days would just about coincide with rehab.
Besides, Barry can't leave. Who would Fab Oberto play guitar with?
But that would only fit with the last three seasons — when everyone took Barry for granted. He was a taller Steve Kerr, another down-to-earth athlete who lived outside of the gated communities.
Barry added both humor and professionalism to the locker room, and it helped create what they have now. Who else could have gotten Tim Duncan on stage wearing a wig?
That was Barry, a guy who easily moved from one crowd to another, and who could just as easily move to another NBA team the same way. For the price he would play for now, he would be a bargain.
What will he do?
He'll let the Spurs know.
[email protected]
LINK: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...s.3898d93.html
Nice article...And I'm glad the Spurs might get a chance to show him some appreciation by sending him some MLE love at a more reasonable rate.
Come back Brent!
Thats not a good sign.Barry wasn't particularly happy when he heard he'd been traded Wednesday,
Barry certainly doesn't owe the Spurs anything, but I hope he decides to return and I think he will.
Can anyone translate Luddeneese?
Kori...I think this is your specialty.
CIA Barry???Barry wasn't particularly happy when he heard he'd been traded Wednesday
Should he have been particularly happy?
Stackhouse happy?
Puts a little hole in the collusion theory doesn't it. Unlike Stackhouse who was whooping it up...
It's an even worse sign if he was exstatic that he was traded.
If he gets another year... I betcha he wont go anywhere.
The article wasn't written by Ludden.
Ludden is right...the Spurs don't need him like the Suns do...but then, that's the same thing as needing him....
I know...but it's written in Luddenese nontheless...he's been doing that a lot lately.
CIA Barry will sign with the Lakers or Suns, meet us in playoffs and shoot brick after brick in the 4th quarter, winking at our Spurs bench in a pivotal game 5.
CIA POP on full swing
I'd love to see Barry back here. He fits here, he's loved here...and H.E.B. commercials aren't worth watching without him.
Someone would have to tell Twohandjam
Ludden used to be the Spurs insider/beat writer(he still might be an insider), but Harvey, not McDonald(the new beat writer) is the guy who seems to have taken on that role locally this season, and he's been pretty accurate about a lot of things going down this season.
It's pretty obvious from other articles Harvey has written recently that he probably has a damn good idea, if not outright knowledge what the Spurs intentions are with Barry and I'm just wondering if anyone can pick up on those details in this article.
Umm nobody is mentioning the loss of Francisco Elson!
He was traded as well ...
Will be playing in Europe in 2008/09/
There are a couple things that point to this being a Stackhouse type deal:
1) The Spurs gave the Sonics money ... the approximate amount of money they had to eat when waiving Barry.
2) Why would the Sonics waive Barry? He's one of the franchise's most beloved players in history. The Sonics might be stuck in Seattle until 2010. Barry would help sell tickets and would be someone the fans could relate too. Waiving Elson made more sense -- especially since the Sonics have three 22-year-old centers to give time to down the stretch of the season.
I think the Spurs setup the deal to where it'd be possible to get Barry back. However, I'm guessing they didn't come to a complete 100% agreement with Barry because such an agreement likely couldn't survive scrutiny if the NBA probed.
Now is the time that Barry can transform himself from a popular Spur to one of the most popular Spurs of all-time. He'd be hailed as a hero for brushing off the other suitors and coming back to San Antonio.
We'll see what he does. If he's still a free agent a week from now, that'll be a good sign for the Spurs.
Barry will be back. He likes playing with El Contusion
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