From Smallwood's column on the Iguodala negotiations:If the fourth-year swingman does not continue his progress and perform to the level anticipated this season, or if he suffers a devastating injury, he could have potentially blown tens of millions of guaranteed dollars in pursuit of a bigger payday.
Does he know something about Billy King's future that we don't? Because I don't think he's talking about the Sixers' Billy King and their history of re-signing their own. Let's go into the time machine and go back to the summer of 2005, shall we?
July 2005: Billy King is ready to overpay another player, this time Willie Green. Green is offered a deal for around 6 years, 20 million dollars.
August 2005: Willie Green suffers knee injury playing a pickup game. Apparently it was inflicted by one of his own teammates after Green shot the ball for the 17th time in the team's last 17 possessions.
August 2005: Billy King does not pull the contract offer, instead he puts it on "hold". Because as had been proven before, Billy King isn't addicted to crystal meth or candy. He gets his high from overpaying his own players, and he'll be damned if a minor setback like a torn knee ligament is going to keep him from getting his fix.
August 2005: Green goes under the knife.
April 2006: Green returns from his knee injury. He plays the remaining ten games of the season and shoots a career best 42.4% from the field.
July 2006: Because of the intense demand for unproven shooting guards coming off serious knee injuries, Billy King does not waste any time getting Willie Green's signature on a contract. Based on the 150 minutes that he played in April, King essentially offers Green the exact same contract that he did the previous offseason, five years for 17 million dollars. Rumor has it that Green's agent was so eager to sign the contract that he allowed Willie slice open his artery because they didn't have a pen lying around the desk. The agent survived, but spent three weeks in the hospital.
Currently: Willie Green is still the same lousy player that he has always been. But at least King has him under contract through the 2009/10 season.
Has Billy King learned his lesson? Of course not. It probably took quite a few sessions with the Sixers prescribe hypnotist to restrain King from offering Iguodala a max contract. And come next July, I'm sure that he won't hesitate to offer Iguodala more money than Igoudala was currently asking for to prevent him from testing free agency. But if the Sixers want to reach their goal of consistently being the eighth seed in the playoffs, then there is not better man to lead them than Billy King.
1 comment:
I found this blog after googling "Billy King Smallwood", since I knew there had to be someone out there in blog-space that could re-assure me that I'm not losing my mind. You see, it's 5 December here (in Japan) and I just read the stories on philly.com regarding the firing of Billy King. I had been anticipating a story on King from Smallwood, and he did not disappoint, grumbling about how this whole firing thing is just so mystifying. A mere 5 days ago Ed Snider said Billy was his man, "so - wow! - how come he got canned?"
As I said, I was beginning to question my sanity, having read quite a few of Smallwood's work re: Billy King. (Such as the one a month or so ago where he was flummoxed that Snider hadn't yet given King a contract extension. Who the hell did he think was King's boss? Billy King?)
And as I said, I'm in Japan, so I'm quite far from things. So I have to ask: What kind of spell did King cast over the media there, that they've been singing his praises so?
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