More than one Gary Trent Jr.
Joe Smith, for one. Also Gary Trent Sr., he's a "Gary Trent," too, he counts.
But there are others, beyond Gary Trent Jr., in the NBA's history of trying to do terrible things with Larry Bird rights – the ability to re-sign for figures over the salary cap with an incumbent team after a single season with the club.
They keep telling us there are more Gary Trent Jrs. out there, so I took a little time to collect the old ones.
The Bucks signed Gary Trent Jr. to single-year minimum deals two offseasons in a row and we didn't notice, because Gary Trent Jr. is closer to a minimum-deal player than he is a $16 million a year player. Then the Bucks signed Gary Trent Jr. to a $16 million a year contract, for four guaranteed seasons, and we noticed.
Maybe the Bucks will get away with it, maybe there are no notes, no signed contracts in a drawer, nobody with any reason to tell the truth, no compelling interest in detailing the ways in which they possibly broke NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) law. As Joe Vardon points out, Bucks did it before with Bobby Portis. Bobby Portis might be a Gary Trent.
Old Suns owner Jerry Colangelo did it with Danny Manning, you remember Danny, he's definitely a Gary Trent:
Danny Manning was granted a $40 million contract after wrecking his knee, a reward for taking a chance on Phoenix.
How was this explained at the time, the Suns handing a massive deal to a player coming off a second ACL tear?
Colangelo gives his players what they want whether they can walk or not.
Jerry’s just nice because he's like that, and not because Manning (who already sent Kansas to hell) would raise heck if Colangelo reneged on whatever the Suns told Manning in 1994, when they gave Danny Manning a one-year, $1 million contract in order to establish his Bird Rights.
"Took a chance on Phoenix," with 1993 MVP Charles Barkley and All-Stars Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle, a year after taking Jordan's Bulls to six Finals games.
Everyone knew Manning's deal was nonsense at the time. But it wasn't talked about as much because someone else was distracting us, flooding the zone.
