This was a tremendous headfake by Altman. Kudos to him. For 5-6 days, the basketball internet couldn’t stop talking about how stupid a GM would have to be to pay a 1st rounder to the Lakers so they could finally get off Clarkson’s money and make room for Lebron. This man Altman gave the Lakers a 1st, in a Lakers salary dump, so that Lebron can go to LA. What a moron.
And this was after he blew the Kyrie trade, whom he traded for essentially just the Brooklyn pick. Vlade should be embarrassed about PapaG? How about handing your biggest rival the second best player in the conference, and top ten player overall, for a low lottery pick? Altman is in way over his head. Vlade has never made a trade as bad as the Kyrie deal. The Sixers deal was bad, sure, but the Kyrie deal is a supernova of idiocy.
So, Altman throws some red meat to Woj. Well played. Except we know Altman is BSing because for two weeks Lebron’s mouthpiece, Brian Windhorst, couldn’t stop talking about how the Kings and Cavs were looking for a third team to take PapaG and/or Richardson since we didn’t have the roster spots. This man Altman even floated Skal’s name to try to get other teams on the phone. Koby, you played yourself, and Lebron will make you look like an idiot come July.
Woj does hate the Kings, or more specifically, Vlade and Vivek. Woj and Bobby Marks go way back with PDA. He’ll take shots whenever he gets the chance. Of course, the Weasel is doing such a great job in Orando now, too. Anyway, our structure is not unique, as pointed out on another board. If you deal with the Spurs, you negotiate with Buford, who then runs it by president/coach Popovich, and then they get ownership approval. Or T-Wolves...Layden-Thibs-ownership approval. And on down the line. It must be hard negotiating with the Cavs though—work with Altman, who then runs things by Lebron and his people, and then get Gilbert to sign off. What a goat rope.
Last thing, when did it start being OK to make fun of people for their language skills? English is Vlade’s 4th language? 5th? 3rd? I don’t even know. Nor do I care. But this incessent bullying of his language skills, and what they are trying to imply, is really disconcerting and borders on xenophobic. To my knowledge, Vlade is the first European to truly run an NBA team. That should be celebrated, and he brings unique experience and ideas to the job. Instead we get the constant derision. Even Zach Lowe, who claims to spend every summer in Croatia/Serbia and allegedly speaks some Serbian, joins in. One would think a real journalist with knowledge of the area, and maybe the one guy who can have a conversation with Vlade in his native tongue, would make the effort for a really interesting long form piece. I guess Zach is not the journalist he claims to be.