Richard Jefferson: In Focus

[Reigning Black]

A lot can change in a year.

A lot.

Relationships, jobs, finances -- for better or worse -- and even your outlook on some of the most significant and insignificant things in life, change is inherent all around us. What's here today is gone tomorrow; absence often makes the heart grow fonder.

Often -- exceptions abound.

When Richard Jefferson exercised an opt-out to forgo a $15.2 million salary in his final year, relief and good fortune seemed to rule the day. The Spurs were viewed as being "let off the hook," no longer an albatross or hindrance weighing them down or holding them back. The Spurs had been given a mulligan, a second chance. This time it was with Jefferson's departure -- last year it was upon arrival.

Needless to say, roughly three weeks after Jefferson decided to opt out, the celebration of R.J.'s resigning was muted, if even existent. Jefferson has his fans, and the team signing his checks are among them, but to some it signified a death knell of sorts. An end to championship aspiration. The Spurs -- as we've come to know them -- were done; Riverwalk parades reserved for a distant memory.

Things are generally never as or bad or good as they may seem, so in order to move forward and digest all that really happened -- and why what happened did happen -- it's best to look at the facts as we know them. Paint the picture, step away from the canvas, then critique the work.

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