Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
2 men shot during party in Fairlawn
Cancellation of Christmas not an option
Akron man killed in crash on his street
Akron Children's Hospital CEO, wife announce $1 million gift to support research
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Police: Pennsylvania man killed misbehaving puppy before Steelers game
Akron Circle K store robbed for second time this month
Several people hurt in Akron crash
KSU suspends basketball player
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Blogs:
Pets:
A Dog Named Christmas – Pet for the Holidays
The Heldenfiles:
Viewing Notes
Patrick McManamon:
Of pass interference and alleged "fake" injuries
Akron Zips:
No. 1 Akron to play Stanford next
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Audio: Mangini disputes Poteat call, accuses Lions of faking injuries
Kent State Sports:
Flashes travel to Florida Atlantic
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeye Football – Present and Future
Varsity Letters:
Gulley to visit Central Michigan in December
All Da King's Men:
The Onion, By Any Other Name…
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Glaring Contradictions
Akron Law Café:
Don't Try to Have Fun if you are Depressed
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
What Automotive Thing Are You Thankful For?
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Faye Dunaway to be Evicted?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Monique asks how to get tickets for the Polar Express.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – Why I am Glad I live in NEO
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
POSTED: 02:05 p.m. EDT, Aug 06, 2008
My friend Pam the Attorney heard Wednesday that LeBron James might consider a boffo financial offer to play for a professional team in Greece.
''Good,'' Pam the Attorney said. ''He thinks he's a Greek god anyway.''
Let two things be known here: Pam the Attorney sees that gigantic portrait of James quite often during the week, and she spoke after being stiffed for lunch (not by James, mind you).
That being said, a lot of folks who follow the Cavs might feel they got stiffed if the latest news/speculation/innuendo/word on the street about James and this Greek team comes to fruition.
Two years, $100 million.
That's supposedly what Olympiakos, a team in Athens, is talking about offering James if he becomes an NBA free agent.
If he's offered that kind of money, one would guess he would just take it and make himself into that global icon that he has been talking about being. Head off for the Greek sunshine, islands and olives.
No NBA team — not even Jay Z and the New Jersey Nets — can come close to offering our LeBron that amount of money.
Some might scoff that LeBron would leave the N-B-of-A, but there are others who wonder if there might be some fire underneath this Grecian Smoke — which is not, by the way, the same as Grecian Formula, a hair-color product for men invented in the time of Heraclius.
European sports are growing.
They are competitive — just look at the foreign influence on the NBA and the results of the Olympics.
The owners have some deep pockets with no salary cap.
And because of the value of the dollar, they can spend money and get a bargain.
An online check Wednesday — through a Greek site of course (have to make this accurate) — revealed that $100 million in U.S. dollars adds up to a meager $64.57 million euros.
That's an instant return of one-third — and wouldn't we all take that kind of percentage in our IRAs that don't exist anymore because of the way the dollar has been devalued?
This story first was reported on SI.com, by a gentleman named Ian Thomsen. He worked for years at the International Herald Tribune and has as many ''ins'' with the European sports community as anyone in the Northern Hemisphere.
Thomsen pointed out that when Olympiakos signed Josh Childress this offseason, The former sixth man for the Atlanta Hawks got $20 million plus all his living and housing expenses paid.
One would guess that if James is involved a remodeled Parthenon might actually come into play.
ESPN.com furthered the story Wednesday by saying Olympiakos already has been in contact with James — no money talks yet — and James has let folks know that he might just take the gyros and run.
The NBA does not seem overly concerned about losing players to Europe. It thinks that it has the best basketball product in the world, and that if James wants to really make a Jordanesque name for himself, the NBA is the place to do it.
It's not a bad point, except that $50 million might make other points.
This is the point where we call a halt.
Before we all start to take our Cavs T-shirts and put them in the stack with the Kardiac Kids and ''It's Tribe Time'' shirts, let's take a step back.
Last look at the calendar showed it's 2008.
This free-agent thing with LeBron won't happen until 2010.
Ten minus eight does equal two.
Which means this is two years away. If it happens at all.
Might it not be more important to perhaps decide some important things prior, such as our next president?
Two years is a lot of time. Brett Favre has retired, unretired, retired and unretired in two weeks. What in the world can happen in two years?
A sperm whale's gestation period is 18 months, max. A human could have two babies in two years. A horse gets two-thirds of the way to the Kentucky Derby.
In two years, folks could have gotten married and divorced, great works of literature could have been written and the state Route 8 bridge project might actually be finished.
The Browns might have won a playoff game, and the NFL might have made several (not one) instant-replay decisions.
Gen. McClellan sat for almost two years outside Richmond, Va. Shays Rebellion was quelled in less than two years. And in two years, there might not be a Starbucks on every corner or a Wal-Mart in every small town telling us how to vote.
Heck, in two years Ohio State could have added Alabama and Mississippi State to the list of SEC teams that it lost to in bowl games.
The Cavs are going to offer LeBron James the biggest contract that they possibly can.
So he'll make gobs of money here, or he might be able to make more gobs of money there. The choice will be his.
The money might be there in Athens now, but so is smog and overcrowding and a lot of stuff, good and bad.
No matter, it's two years from possibly happening. Writing James off at this point is so woe-is-me, we'll-never-win Cleveland sports.
Let's just take a deep breath and appreciate the fact that, right now, one Greek god wears the hometown colors.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
My friend Pam the Attorney heard Wednesday that LeBron James might consider a boffo financial offer to play for a professional team in Greece.
''Good,'' Pam the Attorney said. ''He thinks he's a Greek god anyway.''
Let two things be known here: Pam the Attorney sees that gigantic portrait of James quite often during the week, and she spoke after being stiffed for lunch (not by James, mind you).
That being said, a lot of folks who follow the Cavs might feel they got stiffed if the latest news/speculation/innuendo/word on the street about James and this Greek team comes to fruition.
Two years, $100 million.
That's supposedly what Olympiakos, a team in Athens, is talking about offering James if he becomes an NBA free agent.
If he's offered that kind of money, one would guess he would just take it and make himself into that global icon that he has been talking about being. Head off for the Greek sunshine, islands and olives.
No NBA team — not even Jay Z and the New Jersey Nets — can come close to offering our LeBron that amount of money.
Some might scoff that LeBron would leave the N-B-of-A, but there are others who wonder if there might be some fire underneath this Grecian Smoke — which is not, by the way, the same as Grecian Formula, a hair-color product for men invented in the time of Heraclius.
European sports are growing.
They are competitive — just look at the foreign influence on the NBA and the results of the Olympics.
The owners have some deep pockets with no salary cap.
And because of the value of the dollar, they can spend money and get a bargain.
An online check Wednesday — through a Greek site of course (have to make this accurate) — revealed that $100 million in U.S. dollars adds up to a meager $64.57 million euros.
That's an instant return of one-third — and wouldn't we all take that kind of percentage in our IRAs that don't exist anymore because of the way the dollar has been devalued?
This story first was reported on SI.com, by a gentleman named Ian Thomsen. He worked for years at the International Herald Tribune and has as many ''ins'' with the European sports community as anyone in the Northern Hemisphere.
Thomsen pointed out that when Olympiakos signed Josh Childress this offseason, The former sixth man for the Atlanta Hawks got $20 million plus all his living and housing expenses paid.
One would guess that if James is involved a remodeled Parthenon might actually come into play.
ESPN.com furthered the story Wednesday by saying Olympiakos already has been in contact with James — no money talks yet — and James has let folks know that he might just take the gyros and run.
The NBA does not seem overly concerned about losing players to Europe. It thinks that it has the best basketball product in the world, and that if James wants to really make a Jordanesque name for himself, the NBA is the place to do it.
It's not a bad point, except that $50 million might make other points.
This is the point where we call a halt.
Before we all start to take our Cavs T-shirts and put them in the stack with the Kardiac Kids and ''It's Tribe Time'' shirts, let's take a step back.
Last look at the calendar showed it's 2008.
This free-agent thing with LeBron won't happen until 2010.
Ten minus eight does equal two.
Which means this is two years away. If it happens at all.
Might it not be more important to perhaps decide some important things prior, such as our next president?
Two years is a lot of time. Brett Favre has retired, unretired, retired and unretired in two weeks. What in the world can happen in two years?
A sperm whale's gestation period is 18 months, max. A human could have two babies in two years. A horse gets two-thirds of the way to the Kentucky Derby.
In two years, folks could have gotten married and divorced, great works of literature could have been written and the state Route 8 bridge project might actually be finished.
The Browns might have won a playoff game, and the NFL might have made several (not one) instant-replay decisions.
Gen. McClellan sat for almost two years outside Richmond, Va. Shays Rebellion was quelled in less than two years. And in two years, there might not be a Starbucks on every corner or a Wal-Mart in every small town telling us how to vote.
Heck, in two years Ohio State could have added Alabama and Mississippi State to the list of SEC teams that it lost to in bowl games.
The Cavs are going to offer LeBron James the biggest contract that they possibly can.
So he'll make gobs of money here, or he might be able to make more gobs of money there. The choice will be his.
The money might be there in Athens now, but so is smog and overcrowding and a lot of stuff, good and bad.
No matter, it's two years from possibly happening. Writing James off at this point is so woe-is-me, we'll-never-win Cleveland sports.
Let's just take a deep breath and appreciate the fact that, right now, one Greek god wears the hometown colors.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
