Candid remarks by Mike James on why he wishes Joe would have given him the opportunity to stay and help defend the 'ship... 14 minutes if you have time to listen... Media Player=
If I remember correctly, Mike James wanted a multi-year deal and a chance for more playing time. Joe could not offer that.
Yeah, but the multi-year deal was what James wanted. It wasn't money issue and being the back up on a championship roster doesn't mean you won't play. Joe was all about not giving anyone long term deals in the hope that he could one day make that blockbuster deal to bring Capp Spayce to the D.
I thank him for his time here.... but really think he came in at a perfect storm like min.... and now that he looks back he regrets that storm not lasting. But at the time he wanted to be the man on his own team and here he was never going to be better then a 3rd guard on a team with two guards that are going to play close to 40 mins a night. Look at his career, he's a mover.... i count one instance in his career where he stayed with the same team for 2 complete seasons....
- What happened to James ? He was lighting it up there for a while. He could go coast to coast as good as anyone.
I thought he said or I read that he bought himself out??...just in case some contender wanted to use his services the to close out the season....don't think he could play in the playoffs though could he?? You have to wonder though if Joe had bargained with M James agent if he could have worked out at least a two year deal as that possibly could have brought in a couple more rings....instead we spent the next three years shuffling in Hunter, Arroyo, Delk and combo FlipJr as backups to Billups, and none of them could really do what James did which meant the coaches would overplay Billups. When MJ said we all loved each other and if Joe had kept us all together, we could have won a bunch of rings, you have to feel for what he said, but with the contract, cap space and money, we just couldn't afford him, Corliss, or Memo, because we had to have money to re sign Sheed and then add McDyess.....plus signing Smush Parker and Dupree saved us a bunch a cash....
I am pretty sure that after signing Dyess the cap space was not there to offer him anything more than the min. Had no Bird rights on him. Some other team offered him that huge contract and he took it. I will have to listen to that interview to hear what he has to say. 6 years ago he took the money and ran so I don't know what else he can say about it.
THANK YOU!!!! We had Bird Rights on Sheed, we used his Bird rights, which meant all we had was the MLE, Joe used it on McDyess (smart move). That being said, would it have been better to relinquish Sheed's rights re-sign Memo and Mike James? Which would have meant we lose the MLE and Dyess? The reason we never returned the finals after the 2nd year had nothing to do with the personnel on the floor, it had everything to do with the coaching instability on the sideline. I'm convinced that if we could have kept LB (and if he could have displayed at least an ounce of integrity), we would have won at least 1 more ring.
hmm... I don't know. Why rehash the past? Like many have said James wanted a multi year deal. Someone showed him the money and he took it. Now if he wants to say he should have took a one year deal here for less money in order to keep the team together and win another championship then I can see his point. In the end, it is a business and he looked out for himself and his family and I can't blame him for that. It is what it is and it is all in the past.
Good points. It's not like LB is the only coach to have won a championship. 04 is his only one. I don't want to re-hash LB since everyone's opinions are formed by now and it's too hard looking things up from 6 years ago. For whatever reasons both sides could not get along. Big mistake here was the choice of his successor.
For them to smile in front of the camera and lie their butts off like the rest of the decent-Bad Persons in the world.
