Well, Bell opened up and explained how disillusioned be was by the whole free agent process, and specifically why he decided he couldn’t play for the Bucks with his heart in it since he was only offered 3 year/$9 million and only got 5 years/$18 million.
“I’ve always looked at my team and it’s staff as an extension of my family. This is the culture I learned playing in Europe and in college. This summer has taught me a lot. It’s very different here, at least from my experiences. AFTER you sign with a team, you hear things like, we love you and need you and your special to us. It’s just business, don’t get emotions involved. But BEFORE you sign you hear things like, this is what you’re worth, take it or leave it, we’ll just have to replace you tomorrow then. Which one do you believe? ……. That’s why I was confused for awhile. People say I needed a thicker skin, I have one now, but I’m not quite sure if it’s for the better. Maybe you guys can tell me. It has made me realize that when it comes to big business anywhere and in any profession, there’s no real place for such words as “family” or “loyalty”. ….. Oh BTW I like the city of Milwaukee and I Love the fans, always have and always will, I’ve never had a problem with the city or the fans. But that’s sentiment right? No room for that stuff around here…LOL.”
You know, somehow he doesn’t get much sympathy from me, given that millions and millions of people have to search for jobs every day, often because they were fired or laid off from their previous jobs with virtually no notice. Very, very few people in this world get contracts for 1, 3 or 5 years. And Bell had multiple multimillion dollar offers to choose from this whole time, as well as an agent to stump for him all along. Cry me a river with your “it turns out its a business” whining. Besides, I find it very hard to believe that anyone who has bounced around European basketball for any amount of time would honestly believe that it’s a “family” over there. Maybe he should try reading Paul Shirley’s book sometime.
I know that this whole thing bothers me a little more than it should have. After all, these are basketball players we are talking about, people who’s livelihoods depend on their athletic ability instead of their media-savviness, so normally I’m the first person to write off this behavior as mistake. But Bell seems too smart for that and I don’t like his behavior about this all along. Bell was the one who went to the media and started complaining about how he wouldn’t play hard for the Bucks right before he signed the Heat’s offer sheet. Who is being disingenious here? Was he treating the team that gave him his NBA chance and the fans who supported them like a family? He’s the one who tried use the scorched earth strategy to get out of town!
To Bell’s credit, his Myspace entry contained two references to how he wants to play hard and win now. But his little; “no room for sentiment around here, LOL” joke is silly little sarcastic aside that makes one wonder how seriously the reader is supposed to take the whole explaination. He has to admit that his behavior was completely inappropriate, apologize for it, and directly address the error of his “I can’t play hard for them” remarks.
And until then he has insluted all the fans who paid their hard earned money for tickets, many of whom have had to deal with stretches of unemployment themselves. Come on out into the real world and see what “big business” is really like.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Allan // Sep 24, 2007 at 11:46 am
I think you are biased against Bell due to the dollar amount of his contract and the fact that he plays in the NBA.
You are absolutely right that very few people in the world get 1, 3, or 5 year contracts. Obviously, I don’t know what you do for a living, but if you have a boss, how would you feel if you have to deal with the possibility of losing your job every year? Most people don’t get contracts because they don’t have to worry about losing their jobs as long as they don’t make some idiotic mistakes. The trade-off for a guaranteed contract is constant performance review, so don’t bash Charlie Bell because he finally got a decent contract he deserves.
You probably wouldnt’ feel too fond of your employer if he calls you into office at the end of the year and tells you that he can’t pay you what you deserve and have been making. Instead of paying you $30,000 a year he’s going to offer you $5,000 a year. You want to stay but you don’t want to be underpaid! When a competitor firm called and offered you $36,000 a year you gladly accepted, but due to some messed-up legislation your former employer is able to retain you by matching the offer. I don’t care if you are white, asian, or black… you are going to feel disrespected.
As far as your remark on myspace… it’s funny and true. But is there any difference between myspace and blog? Maybe just the median average of their users? lol
2 macbxx // Sep 24, 2007 at 12:27 pm
And you’re here typing a blog post and having a good time while children starve in Africa, what’s your point?
3 steve // Sep 24, 2007 at 12:28 pm
i think charley did ok for himself.
Look at the result. He ALMOST ended up in Miami, basking in the sunshine of dwade and shaq. The Bucks were the ones that screwed this up. A week before they could have locked him up and for less money (Bell seems to have mentioned that they “promised him a deal”) but then miami came in…
The Bucks needed to have BETTER people skills here. Explain their logic to him in private. If bell was a big enough deal he would have staged all this crap through a press conference.
4 Ami // Sep 24, 2007 at 9:03 pm
1. That’s not why people use myspace.
2. It’s funny how every response to your blog disagreed with you.
5 william // Sep 24, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Bell’s reaction is relative to his experiences growing up and his experiences playing abroad. Your criticism is relative to your experiences, and naturally you’re not going to see eye-to-eye with him.
If athletes generate millions of dollars, then I’d rather see them and the coaching staff, trainers, physicians receive it than just GMs (though of course they will get their share too). The point is that every job comes with certain expectations and perhaps the way a professional athlete’s salary is so far beyond our stratosphere, so too might be their expectations of how to be treated.
I didn’t follow Bell’s career overseas but maybe he was The Man for his team and didn’t incur this treatment while he was there. That could be reason enough for him thinking there is a difference between the NBA and Europe-ball, but I still just chalk it up to his first encounter (it doesn’t matter if it’s naive or wise, he’s merely confused).
Oh….I don’t even have a Myspace account but I do think you inappropriately characterize it. I am 27-years old and for people around my age it is one of the best arenas of creativity: many of my friends don’t buy CDs they just find new music on Myspace. I think it’s Bell’s attempt to connect to people around 20 - 30 years-old. While I was in university Facebook was thought of as teeny-bopper land and Myspace as mature, creative and artistic. I am not sure whether I buy that, but I just laughed at your characterization since it sounded like frustrated middle-aged syndrome.
6 MR RIGHT // Sep 24, 2007 at 10:30 pm
who’s = who is
7 Tom // Sep 25, 2007 at 5:33 am
Guys - the POINT is that using MYSPACE as a means of explaining your ridiculous public statements IS IMMATURE. “I know, I’ll hold a press conference on MYSPACE. Oh OH! I can just put my resume on MYSPACE - and I don’t need to go to the interview.” It’s unprofessional and immature. Also, it is infuriating when a guy doesn’t play hard and is making that kind of money doing something that is actually fun. You say “Bell gets no sympathy” from you. Who IS He getting sympathy from for convincing people he hated Milwaukee and wouldn’t play hard just to land an offer from Miami?
To the guy that says he’s 27 and when he was in college facebook was teeny bopper - I don’t get it. Facebook’s like 3 years old and when it started was only available with a .edu email. So, while MYSpace was being flooded with High Schoolers with way to much time on their hands, facebook was only being used at universities.
8 tuan hoang // Sep 25, 2007 at 7:45 am
for once, the readers are sticking up for the players after reading an unfair post about the player…and myspace (as william mentioned, many music artists have taken to myspace to spread their music, and many have been discovered on myspace).
middle aged to old writers seem to always forget what it was like to be young, searching for stability and dealing with the professional word (regardless of what your field).
9 Paul // Sep 25, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Uh, you wanted “disingenuous” not “disingenious”. “Disingenious” isn’t actually a word.
10 Corey // Jan 2, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Actually if you do some research on him he seems like a really good teammate. Just because he makes a lot of money doesn’t automatically make him wrong. It would be much better to compare what he makes vis a vis other players, not versus the average working person. Different players look at different things, some appear to mostly all about the money, but others place more value on things like family and honestly. Just because a guy makes lots of money doesn’t take away his right to have human feelings like the rest of us.
11 Brett // Jan 3, 2008 at 7:15 am
Iit seems like most of the commentors don’t understand what I was trying to say.
The whole point is that it was immature and unreasonable of Bell to say what he said (about not being able to play hard for Milwaukee), and equally disrespectful to print his “mea culpa” on Myspace — where he doesn’t have to answer any questions or take any feedback about it, compared to talking with a reporter about it. However, when it came to “I don’t want to play for the Bucks”, he had no problem going to a newspaper.
As I’ve said in probably a dozen other posts, I have no problem with how much Bell is making, I have a problem with his contract being for 5 years. He was underpaid for a couple of years, so no matter how badly he plays now you can justify overpaying him for a couple. But a 5 year contract to a non-starter is always a mistake because it damages your roster flexibility.
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