Lebron James and Da U

Lebron James spent some time working out with CP3 among others at the UM campus. An off season workout isn't really newsworthy but just the thought of James ending up on the sideline IN COLUMBUS for Miami-Ohio State the second week of the season is incredible! Not to mention Da U alumni that LBJ will probably start hanging out with... Michael Irvin, Ray Lewis, Jeremy Shockey... crazy, killer, and crazy!

Return of Video of the Week!

Could YOU be an NBA Owner?

Everybody reading this has at some point thought 'what the hell are they doing? If I was running that team I would've never done that! What they should've done is this and this!' 

Well, I have a special treat for you today. Doubtful most of you heard about Grizzlies Owner Michael Heisley's interview on The Chris Vernon Show earlier this week. If you did, then you can ignore the rest of this post. If not... this will be the best post in the short history of In Your Eye NBA I promise you that. You don't have to care one iota about the Grizzlies or the players involved in the discussion to find this story incredible. 

First some quick background information...

Heisley bought the Grizzlies in 2000, moved them to Memphis in 2001 and the team has been to the playoff three times in the last ten years. He's resided over every personnel decision, draft and front office hiring. He approved the Pau Gasol trade and pulled the trigger on the Hasheem Thabeet draft in 2009, but also hired Jerry West as GM in the beginning of the decade and this past summer forked over $84 million to Rudy Gay when it was widely believed the restricted free agent would sign elsewhere. 

The current issue with the Grizzlies and Heisley is the negotiations with former Kansas Jayhawk Xavier Henry, drafted 12th overall this past June, and former Maryland Terrapin Greivis Vasquez, drafted 28th overall. The first year salary figure for the 12th pick in this year's draft was $1.6835 million. Under the current CBA team's are allowed to negotiate down to 80% of that figure and up to 120% of that figure. In addition to the team and the player, the agent also plays a vital role in this since agents do not get a commission on non-negotiated salaries. In other words, if a player is drafted and signed 80-100% of his scale figure, that player's agent will not get paid on that deal. As you can imagine, most teams just 'negotiate' the salary to 120% of the scale figure because that improves relations with the agents in the league, and the player is happy they got the max offer allowed. In essense, everybody wins at the 120% figure. Everybody that is... except Michael Heisley. 

Every first round draft pick in the 2010 draft has been signed this season except for Xavier Henry and Greivis Vasquez. The reason is that Heisley has included performance metrics into each of their contracts, rather than just rubber stamping the 120% figure for both. 

In his interview with Chris Vernon on 730 Fox Sports Memphis, Heisley discussed the situation with Henry, the Thabeet draft, signing Allen Iverson, and even admits to never had read the Collective Bargaining Agreement. (Pulled from http://sportsradiointerviews.com/)

When asked why he is the only owner of the only team that hasn't signed its first round picks Heisley replied: 

“That’s fine! I’ve got plenty of time to sign the rookies. We’re negotiating. There’s nothing going to happen for the next 30 days or 60 days. I’m sitting here, they didn’t come to summer camp, OK.”

Here's Heisley on why he would deviate from the widely accepted practice of giving every first round rookie a 120% scale contract 

“I guess the good question is why doesn’t the rest of the league do it? They negotiated it. It’s part of the collective bargaining agreement. I assume it was put in there — I don’t know, I was not part of that negotiation — but normally you don’t put something like that into the wage scale thing unless you intend to have a performance criteria. Obviously other teams have chose not to use it. There have been teams that have used it. There are teams this year that are using it. But there’s absolutely no question the vast majority of teams have not used it.”

It gets better yet, when pressed to answer how he thinks trying to include performance criteria will be viewed by agents and incoming rookies in the future: 

“If you do that and every time you turn around, if you run around saying ‘I’m not going to do anything because I don’t want to piss off, as you say it, piss off current players, other players and so on in this league. Let me tell you something … what we ought to do, is just, according to you, is just call up Arn [Arn Tellem, Henry's agent] and say ‘Tell me, what am I supposed to do?’”

And finally my favorite... when asked repeatedly by Vernon where the idea of including performance clauses came from in the first place, Heisley went off: 

“I’ve never seen the collective bargaining agreement.” What? “I’ve never seen it?” How is that possible?: “It’s very possible. Is there anything that you haven’t seen in your life? I don’t own an NBA franchise: “Well what would you do, study the collective bargaining agreement? … I’ve got a bunch of people that work for the Grizzlies. Some of those people have been working with the collective bargaining agreement in this league for 20, 30 years. I basically pay those people.”

If you have 35 minutes to blow I HIGHLY recommend listening to the full interview which you can find here on Chris Vernon's blog. If not I hope the synopsis above has shocked and awed you as much as it did me. The arrogance - that really must be heard to be believed - with which Heisley speak is truly surreal. He refers to Vernon as 'son' multiple times even though it's clear to anyone listening that Vernon is controlling the conversation and painting Heisley into some difficult corners. The best is saved for last when Vernon offers his opinion on Heisley's tenure as owner and basically tells him 'you thought this would be fun at first, then when the team didn't win in the playoffs, you severely cut back and hired a bunch of yes-men that have ceded control of the team to you.' It's really high comedy to hear how defensive and hypocritical Heisley becomes. 

The next time you find yourself thinking you can run and manage your favorite team better than the current GM or Owner... you might just be right. (Yes, I'm talking to YOU fellow Knicks fans!) 

Back to Beantown for Rondo

In a somewhat surprising development, Rajon Rondo has withdrawn his name from Team USA. All signs had been pointing to the last spot on the roster coming down to Eric Gordon, Stephen Curry, or Eric Gordon. I had noted over the weekend that I assumed Rondo was a lock along with Derrick Rose and Chauncey Billups. As much as I thought this team didn't need Kevin Love, of all the six PGs they were planning on keeping, I'm definitely not sad at all to see Rondo go. It will be interesting if more information becomes available regarding an injury, a falling out with the coaching staff or some other reason for this premature withdrawal. Team USA plays in Athens against Greece tomorrow at noon on ESPN, and the last cut was going to be made tomorrow night after that game. Interesting timing to say the least for Rondo's decision.

USA-Spain Recap from ESPN

Recap of USA-Spain game from this afternoon. Reairing now on ESPN2 also. Shoutout to Jimmy B and going 'Orange!'

Team USA Weekend Recap

Been a few quiet weeks on the NBA front, but I do have some awesome pictures that I'll put up from the Team USA scrimmage at Radio City (yes it was on stage at Radio City). After a pushover exhibition versus France in Madison Square Garden, Team USA ratcheted up the competition this weekend with two games in Madrid against Lithuania and Spain. I'll skip a general recap of each game and just focus on a couple key points from things I noticed that ESPN and NBATV didn't really focus on.

The battle for the last spot on the roster appears to be between Eric Gordon, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, which makes sense given that Derrick Rose, Chauncey Billups, and Rajon Rondo are all locks to be on the team. Each of them brings a unique skill set to the roster.

Gordon - Perfect international guard, big body, can shoot the three and get to the rim
Curry - lights out shooter than this team somewhat lacks that can also create when needed
Westbrook - the worst shooter of the three, but the best off the dribble and can play solid defense as a young guard

Personally, I'd love it if they kept all three since this team isn't set up like a traditional NBA team with a PG, SG, and SF in the back court. Billups is playing as a two-guard while Rose or Rondo run the point and I think the same could happen with these three off the bench. Westbrook and Curry more or less need the ball in their hands to score, but Gordon is the perfect shooting guard on the second unit. If they did choose to keep all three then I think the cut should be Kevin Love. He's barely played in any of the exhibition games and while this team severely lacks a post presence, other than providing five more fouls what does Love bring to the team otherwise? His playing time could be a result of some nagging injuries and/or the coaching staff playing the guards because they still have to evaluate them. This team's strength is its guard play, so why not load up on them instead of having Love as the 12th man on the bench. Yes, the Lamar Odom/Tyson Chandler center tandem is going to struggle but is the 6'9" Love going to improve the front line that much more? Plus, at least LO and Tyson can get out and run with these guards unlike Love.

In the end, the last player off the bench won't matter all that much, but here's my list of guys that are going to SHINE in the international format. I'm not listing Durant because he's obviously a beast (see: Sunday's 25/10/4 blocks in a 40 minute game versus the defending world champions).

Andre Iguodala - perfect game for FIBA play. Can create, get to the rim, knock down the mid range jumper - a key in international play because the 3-pt line is about three feet closer than the NBA line, making it a long 2-pt shot in the League. He can also defend and his versatility should really shine a la Carmelo on the 08 Olympic champs.

Rudy Gay - he can be a scoring machine off the bench and fill in while Durant takes a breather. Again, he's versatile and while he doesn't play defense like Iguodala he can play the 2, 3, or 4 on this team and stretch the defense with his shooting.

Derrick Rose - again, I keep saying it, but he's built for international play has a strong, tough, bigger guard that can take the bumps and hits that FIBA officials allow to happen - unlike NBA officials. He can get around anyone in the world and could put up monster numbers penetrating and kicking out to Durant or finding Odom after the defense collapses on him.

One more tune up exhibition versus Greece in Athens on Wednesday at noon before the Championship starts on Saturday. I'll have a more in depth preview of the entire tournament later this week after the Greece game.