DoD "Olawantismoremoneyandplayingtime" LOL nice post You know, it saddens me to say nice post about the truth like that. Why can't Dream just play? He'd improve our team. I'd love to watch him and cheer for him until his next injury that requires a miracle drug cure. What strikes me about some attitudes in this thread re: we *must* have Dream or we suck with Cato is I wonder what they'd be saying if we got Curry instead of Griffin. Would Dream be in the way, then? Just sign and play Dream. You'll be disappointed on other teams. What? You really believe Toronto's offense is not going through Vince at crunch-time. You really believe Pat Riley is going to start you? You really believe Cleveland has put out that fire on Lake Erie, yet? if not, then GO rockHEAD'S sig
A bit harsh don't you think? This guy has been with the Rockets almost all his career and contributed during the championship runs. I don't recall him complaining about his PT or his role. He just does his job, which is shooting threes. He doesn't demand outrageous amounts of money and is a good member of the community. Bullard just wants to play for the Rockets and Hakeem is holding everything up for him and the other FAs. And the stuff about Bullard owing Hakeem. Did Hakeem get the Rockets to sign Bullard back in 1990? Did he get the Rockets to re-sign him in 1996? Just because he chose to play for the Rockets for so many years you assume he can't get a job elsewhere. The Hawks did sign him as FA (played 70 games) and when he played in Greece he averaged 18.5 ppg and 11.5 rpg. ------------------ [This message has been edited by SlamN (edited July 25, 2001).]
Bullard would probably be in the CBA???? There are plenty of three point shooters??? What is this stuff.. if there are so many 3 point shooters etc.. then why dont' the rockets have another one besdies bullard.. and why do the lakers etc want bull.. bullard h as the right to say whatever he wants.. hakeem is messing around with things that affect bullards contract.. hakeem can take however long he wants etc I guess.. but it was pretty irresponsible in my mind to be in the mid east when he should have been over here doing contract discussions.. webber etc and most of the other big name free agents aren't waiting this long.. why wasn't hakeem having these dicussions with all the other teams on july 1st instead of being in the middle east. i've even heard people defend him by saying wel he was out of town.. he has known for 5 years he'd be a free agent now.. i would think he could at least be in town when it was time to discuss his contract.. or was his middle east trip of importance? i sure hope it wasn't just a family vacation ------------------ Shane "Save Our Rockets" "Life without basketball in Houston........without an arena that is what it will be" [This message has been edited by Rocket Fan (edited July 25, 2001).]
JAG is right on. If anything, Bullard is the one being selfish here. "Hurry up and sign your contract, so I can sign mine." What the hell is that? I guarantee you Bullard would not be one of the 12 roster selections for 80% of the people on this board next year (and that's WITHOUT counting Shandon), yet now he's some kind of hero for piling on Hakeem. And if the Rockets lose other FAs over this, it is their fault (how could failing to sign their own FAs be anyone else's fault???), without a doubt. Not that that's going to happen, though, because the Rockets are not idiots, like some seem to think right now. Oh, and JAG is right on. You would think that someone of Hakeem's stature would be able to at least negotiate a contract without getting lambasted by his own fans. Apparently 17 years of service and 2 gift-wrapped championships don't give you that "privelage". ------------------ "What have you done for me lately Hakeem Olajuwon?" --the ClutchCity.net BBS
Well.. partly I believe the rockets feel that if they renounce hakeem there will be a lot of upst fans etc and bad PR. like the last time they almost traded him.. they are letting him make the decision himself.. but he can't seem to decide and people are saying bullard has no right etc.. you all woulnd't be upset if a coworker decided your future and he was sitting around if millions of dollars was enough for him and if he even wanted to work at the company etc when he had years to decide that. meanwhile you are losing opportunities at other companies etc because he is waiting. taylor. and the rest of being loyal and missing out on opportunities they could have with other teams because they like the rockets.. now hakeem is doing all this and taylor etc will end up with little or no leverage since all the other teams are filling up their rosters.. i know they dont have to stay if they dont want to.. but they are at least trying to be loyal and are getting talked bad about for it when one of them speaks up [This message has been edited by Rocket Fan (edited July 25, 2001).]
Dream is weighing his options on The Rockets terms.If The Rockets wanted to sign a new player or two then its just about too late.I know Bullard may not be he best man on the Rockets to say what he did but the man has a family just like the rest of his team mates.And lets not forget the other guys that don't have a contract.Matt Bullards a great guy and I feel he would never call Hakeem selfesh.Matt has made his decision unlike Hakeem and he just wants to start sleeping easier at night.With his bird rights I'm sure he's ready to start making the good money and I feel he deserves it. What are we going to do if our free agents sign elsewhere? ------------------ Fear the Spear [This message has been edited by Goldberg (edited July 25, 2001).]
Hakeem could cut the head off of Matt Bullard, and TheFreak would let him go cause he gave us 17 years and 2 championships.
I heard a replay on 610 of Bullard's quote this morning. It's not like he blasted the Dream for taking so long. He just said he wishes Dream would make his decision so that he and the other free agents can begin their negotiations. Look, Dream has always played up the drama. He wants to be appreciated. Fine. Some of you guys are saying we should give in to his demands out of respect for what he's done in the past. Isn't 16 mil enough respect?!!! And that's 16 mil for half a season. Not to mention the previous season that he missed games in. Why would any of you want to take the risk in losing our young free agents, who want to be here, by tying up our cap space on the old fella. Out of respect?!!! Screw that. If Dream wants to leave over a few hundred thousand dollars, then bye bye. And to me that would be disrespectful to the Rockets organization. Let's not put him on a pedestal and worship him like a god. He's a friggin basketball player that is blessed with being secure for the rest of his life. I'll love him for what he's done but I'll always be a Rockets fan, first and foremost. Here's a question that has probably been answered a hundred times: Why can't we renounce Dream, sign Mo and Mooch, then let Shandon and Dream fight over what's left? That would certainly put their agent in a pickle. Is there a particular reason we have to re-sign Dream before we sign our other FA's? ------------------
TheFreak, you say this makes Bullard greedy. You say he just wants to sign his contract. How do you know this is what he wants? Maybe he wants to get this done quickly, so the Rockets are assured of have some FAs left to sign if Dream leaves. If so, is he still greedy, or does he just hope for the best for the Rockets? I didn't hear the comments. I don't know the context or the tone with which he said them. But it seems to me that Bullard's comments have just as much chance of being selfish as they do being selfless. He knows that he is going to get his 1 mil. If not here, then somewhere else. Is Dream hurrying up really going to increase his salary? No. So I don't see how Bullard wanting to speed things up is an indication of greed. In fact, I think it would be interesting if the Rockets management asked Bullard to say something like this to indirectly convince Hakeem to move along. If so, then it is as much a part of the negotiation as Dan Fegan leaking false contract offers. My point is, his actual intentions could be numerous, but I seriously doubt it is greed. ------------------ Life is a **** sandwich. The more bread you have, the less **** you have to take. You can Run from the bet, you can Rave at the bet...but you just can't hide.
Good one drama queen. You get that from me wanting to let the man negotiate a contract? No one seemed to have a problem with Shandon Anderson and Mo Taylor taking the entire summer to decide they were just going to play for the exception. I guess they couldn't have done that at the beginning now, could they? Nobody complained that the Rockets couldn't make any trades all summer because they didn't know if they were going to have either of those two guys on their roster. I like how people like to make Mo, Moochie, and Shandon out as victims in all this. Like they're prisoners or something. Apparently Hakeem is the only one of the bunch that's actually a "free" agent, these other guys have ZERO options, right? If they all want to be in Houston so bad like Bullard says, they will wait as long as it takes. They are FREE agents. As in FREE to look for employment elsewhere. Some of you have so little faith in the Rocket organization, I swear. ------------------ "What have you done for me lately Hakeem Olajuwon?" --the ClutchCity.net BBS
from the way i've heard it discussed.. if we renounce hakeem we wont have his bird rights next year.. on radio etc they act like that's bad because then if hakeem had a great year we couldn't give him a lot of cash. more than likely he isnt' going to have some great year so i dont think it shoudl be such a problem.. i think we shoudl just renounce him.. but then again that may make him upst and leave for sure ------------------ Shane "Save Our Rockets" "Life without basketball in Houston........without an arena that is what it will be"
With the new zone defenses allowed...Bullard's shooting ability is an asset for any team...especially mine ------------------ I'm off like a prom dress!!!
Raven -- so you're saying I may have misinterpreted Bullard's statements? I'll gladly concede that. As soon as people stop pretending to know what Hakeem thinks (ie he's "selfish", he "wants more touches", he "doesn't care about the team"), I'll stop pretending to know what Bullard thinks. Sound fair? ------------------ "What have you done for me lately Hakeem Olajuwon?" --the ClutchCity.net BBS
Praise "Air Bullard" for having the balls to say just what the other Rocket free agents have been wanting to say since July 1st. Dream needs to be put in his place because he's only thinking about himself instead of the team. ------------------ The intelligent prediction from Moses Malone: "Foe, Foe, Foe".
You guys are completely overstating this situation. Bullard wants to see what the Rockets will look like next year, that is all. He did not challenge Hakeem in any way. ------------------
