Just want to call out the people that were saying Prince was being greedy and arrogant for not talking about his contract and holding out for more money. The kid is just soft spoken, but very loyal and undersstanding of the opportunity the Pistons gave him. He took consi "Money is not going to make you happy," Prince said hours before signing his new deal. "It's where you are at, where you are established and where you fit in good with the guys and the organization. Even though I haven't been anywhere else, I feel this is the best place in the NBAderably LESS money to stay and should be commended.
I second that. I never had a problem with Tayshaun. He has the right to get the best deal for him. I had an issue with his agent. A lot of these agents make statements or try to bully a deal through by using the media. If a team is working in good faith there is no reason to make inflamatory comments.
True. I think Tay was probably just working out, chilling with his wife and eventually told his agent-- get a deal done.
Hypothetical How many here would take less pay so that they could keep their work unit together? I'm glad Prince feels some loyalty in Detroit. It makes it more likely that other players will sacrifice a bit in the future.
I don't think this is about LOYALTY as much as common sense. Ask Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, KVH, Tim Thomas etc, etc. If you take big $$$$$ to go to a loser, then all fingers point to you when that losing team keeps losing. Eventually you find yourself being traded all over the league, and thrown into obscurity once you land in Atlanta, New Orleans, Charlotte etc. Now if class A winning org's had the $$$ to spend the loyalty factor wouldn't be praised so much around here. On this team Tay has the opp to make a ton of $$$$, stay in one house with his new bride, and he's the 3rd/4th option on the team. Dude that's all a win/win/win. What if Hughes, JJ, and Simmons put up the numbers that Tay does and their teams never smell the playoffs, then you have a bunch of Vince Carters "Yeah I make a ton to deliver this team to the playoffs, but we suck and I want out, I mean for crying out loud we can't even make the playoffs!!!!"
Prince didn't take less pay, he still got a big raise and long term job security. I would take a smaller, but still significant pay raise to stay in a job that I was very happy in and in a place that I had the best opportunity to succeed in. He did take less money than he could have made from another team with more cap room. I will give him credit for that. Prince did show loyalty to the Pistons and I have no problem with the way the negotiations went. Joe D. was trying to do what was best for the Pistons, Prince did what was best for himself and his agent did what was best for Prince and himself. I'm very happy to have Prince signed long term, and I think its a fair deal, but he won't exactly be going hungry on his new contract. It wasn't like it was a big sacrifice on his part to stay with the Pistons. Unlike Sprewell, Prince's family should be well fed for several more years. Poor Latrell, maybe we should start a can drive or something...
Every thing I said earlier about Prince not being happy, absolutely wrong. I guess Prince decided it was better to get 47 mil in a place he liked, on a winning team, than get 50 or 60 mil in some god forsaken NBA wasteland. I guess he didnt want to end up like Okur or Boozer, getting the cash, stuck in Utah. Thank you Tay, great job Joe.
Tays Contract We do not know what he would have been offered next summer. A good season and he would have gotten some huge offers. Joe played it cool. He did not let Tays agent bring what was going on in the league ( Simmons, Hughes, .. ) too much into the negotiations. Read Tays intentions very well and ended up only compromising on an extra 500k/yr. It would have hurt this team going into next summer with 2 of the starters amoung the top FA's. I wonder if LB would have been blasting off in the press if he were still here.
Yeah, in Utah he could have multiple wives, imagine all the kids he'd have to feed then! I don't know if $47 million would cover it.
