An Old Wound

[Rays Pompadour]

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.

[Chapelchilla]

Well written. And truth be told.

[Liver_Pooty]

I try to forget such things

[Rich4114]

Why would you do this to yourself and us right now?

[dmutombo321]

Great post. Losing Zo was certainly a shot to the balls for the city. Bob Bass masterfully blunted the blow though by getting prime Glen Rice in return (and one of my favs Matt Geiger, who once got fined for leaving the bench during a game to have drinks with some broad in the Crown Club). That Rice/Mason/Divac squad was formidable and ended up posting the highest win total in team history.. The 1990s truly were the franchise's glory days

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[powerforward]

Well written and it still hurts. I was in the club room for VIPs with my dad and his friend who invited us when one of the pr guys came in and announced the trade of zo for rice. Loved rice but zo was my guy. And I would kill for a bob bass again one of the all time underrated front office guys


And I hate George shin. Awful in every way. Cheap to the point we lost our team. Then the team gets cp3

[luciano-davidwesley]

Hopefully we get our new Zo and LJ in 20 and 21. Sans the greed, dodgy kidney and bad back of course.

I can dream right?

[NCHeels2008]

Not even a conference finals appearance in 30+ years, pretty wild