The 2nd Season

Just as chivalrous knights once courted fair maidens, today NBA owners, GMs, and their player personnel cronies can now officially begin their pursuits of their own versions of our societies modern fair maidens, the professional sport athlete. I don't quite know if 6'7 260lbs super freak free agent Ron Artest, who once claimed to have witnessed not just a murder, but a very brutal stabbing on the basketball court growing up, as someone who knows anything about chivalry, but thats just a guess. I can't just brush over that story it must be told! and who better to tell it than Ron explain in his own words of course:

"I remember when I used to play back home in the neighborhood there were always games like that. I remember one time, one of my friends, he was playing basketball and they were winning the game. It was so competitive, they broke off a piece of leg from a table and they threw it and it went right through his heart and he died right on the court." Apparently his story to a certain extent is legit .

Tangent #1: I wouldn't mind at all if my squad, the Lakers, signed Artest, remember Mitch it is quite chivalrous for a true gentleman to walk on the outside of the lady while he is courting her.

(He loves the lakers, look here is a picture of him kissing Kobe. But remember Kobe keep the furniture away from him, specifically tables.)

I have always been a fan of the free agent season, I follow it religiously. Today, already I have brushed over hoopshype.com, realgm, ESPN, hoopsworld twice and rotoworld thrice. I think this craze started in the summer of 96 with the Laker's courtship of Shaquille O'Neal, where as a young lad I would wake up during the summer before the ass crack of noon just so I could read the paper before it had browned in the summer sun. Frankly put, I'm a nut when it comes to this stuff; I find it as interesting as the actual season itself and thats probably the reason I call it the second season. Sadly, I feel that this offseason/2^nd season will be a quiet one in the NBA this year. This is mainly due to the financial constraints of the economy and the reluctance of many owners to dish out max contracts, especially with the 2010 second season on the horizon.

It might be quiet, but it still will be interesting. This summer look for the rich to get richer. A lot of teams are going to save cap space for next year, meaning the only available openings for free agents will be with teams willing to use their Mid Level Exception (MLE.) The teams that are going to be willing to do so are playoff caliber teams, i.e. the Spurs, Cavs, Lakers, Celtics, etc. So players who would otherwise be considered for Max level deals looking to cash in are going to be disappointed with the MLE this offseason. Sorry to all those Rashard Lewis types (i.e. Ben Gordon, Hedo, etc.) looking for max deals. I should be weary of such bold predictions (or should i say logical ones) because interestingly enough just as I typed that, one of the better GMs in the league, Joe Dumars of the Pistons, has already dished out two fairly large contracts to Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva; so much for 2010 I guess.

Tangent #2: Charlie Villanueva/Athletes with Alopecia

(Charlie V. can now be officially entered into the US2AAAHF (the Under Siege 2 All-time Alopecia Athletics Hall of Fame; joining the likes of minor league pitcher Gustavo Chacin (left), all time great soccer referee Pierluigi Collina (center), and former Olympic swimmer Duncan Goodhew.) Congratulations Charlie.