Elton Brand
signed his rookie contract today - for 10 million clams. Not bad. Â
After playing with Tim Duncan, Gary Payton & company, the Bulls might not
be that difficult to deal with. And speaking of Duncan, there is a highly
speculative article in the Chicago Trib suggesting
that the Bulls could sign, as free agents both Grant Hill and Tim Duncan.
In some other news, The Poop Sheet, which is now known as the ACC Area Sports Journal, is out and
it's new issue has a lot of cool stuff, starting with the politics of expansion.
To no one's surprise, FSU is behind the push, and Tech to a lesser
extent. TPS sketches out various potential machinations among conferences
- ND turns down the Big 10/1, which then raids the Big 12 for Mizzou, thus
making the Big10/1 the Big 12 and the Big 12 the Big 11, which won't do not
least of all because while it trashes their name, they also need 12 teams for a playoff, so they go make a run
after Arkansas, which makes them the Big 12 again but leaves the SEC short one
school, and the 'Noles are using that as leverage with the ACC. Ok by
us. When USC left, we survived just fine. We'd survive them leaving too,
and since they're still widely regarded as noveau riche who haven't mastered the
Real Game, let them go if they want. They'll have much less success
dominating Bama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Auburn, and the other football factories
of the great Southeast and their basketball will stay dead. For the UVa's of the
world who want to get the rest of the conference to pay for their facility
improvements, we say, again, there are other solutions: an ACC-SEC football
challenge would be tres cool.
The other factor mentioned is costs/returns. If Miami comes in, the
conference will gain two million but spend half of that getting teams back and
forth. The same is true for Syracuse.
At the same time, TPS reminds that the hoops contract runs out in 2001, and
renewal should be a blockbuster (it was a huge increase last time and the NC
schools are all doing well, Maryland is resurgent in the DC market, and UVa is
reviving. Tech will be back with or without Cremins. And this is the first
contract to reflect the Web, not that the Web will be a big part of it
necessarily, but it does a lot to raise interest and gain attention, as you know
since right now, at this very moment, you're part of it.
Fortunately, it looks as if there are seven votes for some time against
expansion. Duke can be reliably expected to vote no, and it's certainly
not good for Wake, so for not it looks like a long shot, which is good. Maybe
after the basketball contract - assuming sanity prevails until then - things
will look more logical to everyone concerned.
There were several mentions of Tamir Goodman as well. In one section, the pub
said that he was potentially "another Pete Maravich," and that's not
an illogical comparison after you've seen his range and his passing. They
also agreed with us on what a nasty thing Clark Francis did in ridiculing the
kid, though they were more diplomatic than were we.
In another section, they said that a kid lit up Goodman for 40 points.
Possible. We have seen his offensive skills; we haven't seen defensive
highlights. But we're pleased that they are at least reserving judgement on the
kid.Â
They commented also on his summer league play. Rudy Archer was
impressed, and so were a couple of other fairly high-level players. It's good to
see someone treat the kid with some balance. You don't have to be convinced he's
the next Maravich or the worst player ever. But it's good to at least give him a chance to be Tamir. We think you'll enjoy that, quite a bit.