Actually, no he didn't. The Spurs pulled their offer from him, and look at this article from the Charlotte paper today: http://www.charlotte.com/hornets/pub/tom0713.htm Robinson wanted to stay put Hornets waited, instead of making offer, and lost key player, credibility By TOM SORENSEN For a team that almost made the NBA Eastern Conference finals, the Charlotte Hornets are minor league. Minor-league teams serve as a feeder system, and today the Hornets feed Eddie Robinson to the Chicago Bulls. Two years ago the Hornets plucked Robinson, an athletic and unpolished forward-guard from Flint, Mich., out of Central Oklahoma University. An undrafted rookie, Robinson was at first a guy who jumped high and occasionally hit a jump shot seemingly slung from behind his head. He was an athlete more than a player. But he worked hard, and to the spectacular, he was learning to add the routine. Along with the unbelievable dunk, he brought speed, energy and hunger. He really wants to be good. Robinson, 6-foot-9 and about 200 pounds, is not good, yet. But he will be. And he won't be good here. The Bulls gave him a five-year, $31.7 million contract. Is Robinson worth $6-plus million a season? Look around the league. NBA money is not like real money. The pay scale is predicated not on what a player has done, but what he might do. That's why the league suddenly is full of teen-agers with silk suits, cell phones and Cadillac Escalades. The Bulls will pay Robinson $5.2 million next season. The Hornets couldn't. The most they could offer was $4.2 to $4.5. And that would have been enough. Robinson wanted to stay. He likes his former teammates as much as they like him. A nice guy, he is extremely popular with the other players. He also is what the Hornets purport to be and what they appeared to be in their first-round playoff sweep of the Miami Heat, exciting and high-flying and on the way up. All the Hornets had to say to Robinson was, "We really want you and we will give you as much as we can." Instead, they waited. Rather than risk giving Robinson a benchmark other teams could exceed, they gambled that Robinson would not be offered major money by the competition. By waiting, the Hornets thought they could save a few bucks. Instead, they lose Robinson and credibility. Robinson becomes the 24th straight free agent the Hornets have let go. (They did sign Jamal Mashburn this season before he became a free agent.) The previous 23 might have been a coincidence, but at some point you have to want to keep at least one of your players. The Hornets have asked Charlotte and its voters for a commitment, yet they refuse to commit. Successful franchises devote their resources, and many of their waking hours, to finding a way to hang on to their key players. In fact, there was a faction in management that wanted to start him at shooting guard and bring the more versatile David Wesley off the bench. Ah, well. This is business as usual, and we should be used to it. But last season was different. The Hornets excited the city and had their best playoff run, and they did what they did with three new starters. There was a sense that their 10-game postseason taught them to communicate with each other the way the really good teams do. But in this organization, the only way for players to communicate is by e-mail. ------------------ Draftsource.net-- the premier source for draft info. Profiles, rankings, mock drafts, and more! The Mo Taylor Fan Site
Actually, yes he did. Chicago was the first visit he made, and he promised them that visit (via his agent) before the FA visit season started. I don't doubt he would have liked to have stayed in Charlotte---he's familier with the town and the staff and the players---but they never made him an offer. And rather than wait, he re-upped a week earlier than he had to. I'd say he pretty much liked the idea of Chi-Town. ------------------
gettindbranded; you're living in some fantasyworld where you think that all FA's first choice would be to play in chicago - that's not true, and it shows up in the fact that they have to pay an enormous salary to a guy like Eddie Robinson to get him to go there. I mean last off season there was a guy by the name of Ron Mercer who many thought would sign up somewhere for the 2.2mill exception, and BAM Chi-town offers him almost 7mill per season. And now they shell out big buckaroos for Eddie Robinson - to me that reeks of a team that just cannot attract quality FA's and so they overpay for the mediocre ones in order to try and bring some sort of respectability to the franchise. So the Bulls 2 highest paid players are their 2 SG's now ? Should be another outstanding season for the mighty bulls! ------------------
