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Originally Posted by max  I don't want to re-hash it again but LB wanted to leave just as much as Davidson wanted him out. Who remembers all the "I may not be able to coach next season due to my health" claims that LB was making? Who recalls LB taking a couple of weeks off during the season for his surgery and not even bothering to tell Dumars or Davidson? Who recalls LB meeting with Isiah while still under contract with the Pistons?
I believe LB wanted to get fired so he could get his buyout money plus the Knicks deal and I am still standing by it.
Yes LB should have been the coach for the full 5 years. He had a chance to go down in history with his own championship squad but apparently money was more important to him. |
Max, we will have to agree to disagree on this one. I think that the fact that Davidson paid LB $7 million to leave, instead of LB resigning, is strong evidence that Bill D. wanted LB out more than LB wanted to leave the Pistons. Bill D. is a savvy businessman, and he must have concluded that LB would not resign, or he would not have paid him $7 million to leave.
I do think Larry wanted a new and improved deal from Bill D., and I think he would have been unhappy without one, but I don't think he would have resigned, and I think Bill D. must have drawn the same conclusion.
I think Bill D. could have probably retained LB without giving him a better contract. But I also think Larry deserved a new contract, and that would have been the ideal solution. Keep him and keep him a happy camper. He was, as I said, the perfect coach here.
I also think that LB and his agent went too far in some of their negotiating tactics, and those tactics clearly backfired with Bill D, who apparently was deeply offended by them. But LB is not unique among players or coaches in professional sports in wanting to revise an existing contract to reflect improved market value after a championship, and I will not fault him for that.