An Old Wound
Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 4:48 pm
Today's insane money...
James Harden recently turned down a $50M per year contract extension with the Rockets. And that is just nutso money. It's so far out of my range of imagining...I mean, 50 MILLION dollars a YEAR! Holy macaroni and cheese, that's a lot of cheddar. Do it for 10 years and that's half a billion dollars.
It brought to mind the acrimonious dealings between George Shinn (I shudder) and Alonzo Mourning and the insane amount of money Zo was asking for - get this: $13M per year. Shinn had already unwisely given Larry Johnson the league's largest contract of $84M over 12 years, this after Johnson injuring his back. That big contract made it hard for Shinn to swallow Mourning's asking price.
Here's a link to Chicago Tribune to that time: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-04-9511040064-story.html#:~:text=Hornets%20owner%20George%20Shinn%20said,It%20just%20broke%20my%20heart.%22
The News and Record had a visceral reaction here: https://greensboro.com/going-a-bit-nuts-over-mournings-money/article_86cedbfe-1cbb-5e93-abce-7ca13d660070.html
Just the thought of those days, of what might have been, of the dynasty forming in Charlotte that just...disappeared. Bob Bass, the greatest GM of all time, salvaged that situation, but losing Mourning over $1.8M was simply heart breaking. Thinking about that miniscule amount of money in today's valuation opened an old wound. Sometimes, paying too much is well worth the cost. And being short-sighted can be tragically costly. But for fans of the Hornets, the pain of that loss was real and lingers still.
Mourning led the Heat to the playoffs in 1995 and went on to sign a seven-year, $105M contract with the Heat the following year.
Losing Mourning to the Heat was the beginning of Pat Riley's rise in South Beach and the genesis of the Hornets' exit to New Orleans. Charlotte has been trying to recapture that fleeting moment of hope, of rabid fans and attendance records and murals downtown, of a future so bright as to blot out the sun...the city has been trying to recapture that feeling ever since Alonzo Mourning was shipped off to Miami.
But, sadly, some old wounds never heal.
James Harden recently turned down a $50M per year contract extension with the Rockets. And that is just nutso money. It's so far out of my range of imagining...I mean, 50 MILLION dollars a YEAR! Holy macaroni and cheese, that's a lot of cheddar. Do it for 10 years and that's half a billion dollars.
It brought to mind the acrimonious dealings between George Shinn (I shudder) and Alonzo Mourning and the insane amount of money Zo was asking for - get this: $13M per year. Shinn had already unwisely given Larry Johnson the league's largest contract of $84M over 12 years, this after Johnson injuring his back. That big contract made it hard for Shinn to swallow Mourning's asking price.
Here's a link to Chicago Tribune to that time: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-04-9511040064-story.html#:~:text=Hornets%20owner%20George%20Shinn%20said,It%20just%20broke%20my%20heart.%22
The News and Record had a visceral reaction here: https://greensboro.com/going-a-bit-nuts-over-mournings-money/article_86cedbfe-1cbb-5e93-abce-7ca13d660070.html
Just the thought of those days, of what might have been, of the dynasty forming in Charlotte that just...disappeared. Bob Bass, the greatest GM of all time, salvaged that situation, but losing Mourning over $1.8M was simply heart breaking. Thinking about that miniscule amount of money in today's valuation opened an old wound. Sometimes, paying too much is well worth the cost. And being short-sighted can be tragically costly. But for fans of the Hornets, the pain of that loss was real and lingers still.
Mourning led the Heat to the playoffs in 1995 and went on to sign a seven-year, $105M contract with the Heat the following year.
Losing Mourning to the Heat was the beginning of Pat Riley's rise in South Beach and the genesis of the Hornets' exit to New Orleans. Charlotte has been trying to recapture that fleeting moment of hope, of rabid fans and attendance records and murals downtown, of a future so bright as to blot out the sun...the city has been trying to recapture that feeling ever since Alonzo Mourning was shipped off to Miami.
But, sadly, some old wounds never heal.