This column was going to be content with paddling Billy Gillispie, but then Rick Barnes came along and presented himself on a platter. So now you get two spankings for the price of one.
Which guy is more ruthlessly selfish, Gillispie or Barnes? I can't tell. Maybe you can help me. I'm hoping my bosses add one of those cool "poll questions" to this story, maybe with the title, "Who's the bigger jerk?"
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Billy Gillispie's about one thing these days -- bringing home the moola. (Getty Images) |
Because right now, between Gillispie and Barnes, I can't decide.
Gillispie is a jerk for playing Texas A&M, Arkansas and the rumor of Kentucky into the most unseemly money grab since gas went to $3 a gallon. Barnes is a jerk for trying to convince Kevin Durant to turn down millions to play another season in college.
Neither dude is even trying to hide what's going on.
First, a look at Billy the G.
After the best two-year run in Texas A&M history, Gillispie deserved a raise. No question about that. He used Arkansas to get it, which doesn't bother me a great deal. Arkansas has the worst athletics director in NCAA history and a hysterical, frothing fan base, so if Gillispie was going to use any school like a country bumpkin, Arkansas is as good a choice as any.
But then after negotiating an enormous raise from Texas A&M -- reportedly an extra $500,000 a year, to $1.75 million annually -- Gillispie decided not to sign it. Not yet. He's not saying why, but he doesn't have to. This isn't one of those shell games where the audience tries to guess which coconut is hiding the coin. There is only one coconut, and it's unable to conceal the $2 million in cash underneath.
It's a royal blue coconut. In Kentucky's school colors. Gillispie is waiting on the Wildcats.
In other words, he'll negotiate with Texas A&M. He'll even agree to terms. But he won't consummate the deal. Not until Kentucky comes calling.
Whatever happens next would disgust me.
Let's say Gillispie takes the Kentucky job (which he would). It's ugly enough when a coach renegotiates his contract and vows to spend another decade or so at his current school, then leaves the next year. It's downright hideous when he renegotiates and agrees to terms and then leaves the next week. That could be Gillispie's fate if Kentucky gets turned down quickly by Florida's Billy Donovan. For its trouble, Texas A&M would get nothing, because Gillispie turned his school's panic into a contract without a buyout clause. Gillispie's a brilliant guy, but he's a snake.
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But let's say Gillispie decides to stay in Texas, his home state. Let's say he turns down Kentucky. You'd better believe he's not staying at Texas A&M for the $1.75 million he just negotiated. That was last week, before Kentucky came calling. Whatever amount Gillispie had said was enough, tell you what ... put another zero on it.
And you know I'm right.
Now then, let's talk about Rick Barnes.
In a way, Barnes' greed is more despicable. In Texas A&M, Gillispie is bilking a faceless corporation. Taxpayers fund state schools and so forth and so on, but let's be honest: Gillispie's greed is a victimless crime.
Not so with Barnes, who is playing God with Kevin Durant, Durant's family and Durant's future family -- his wife, his kids, his grandkids -- by suggesting in meetings with the family that Durant stay in school and by being quoted publicly in the same vein.
Durant should be months away from signing deals that would take care of his family for generations to come. After one of the most electric freshman seasons ever, Durant would be the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, which would earn him a guaranteed -- key word, guaranteed -- contract in the ballpark of $20 million.
Then there's the shoe deal, which would be another seven-figure balloon payment. And other endorsement opportunities. If you're an NBA player with Durant's game and personality, it's raining money before your first game.
That's important, considering there might never be a first game.
Durant could get hurt at Texas. Nobody wants that to happen, but let's not be naïve about this. Basketball is a brutal sport -- ask Shaun Livingston's detonated left knee -- and injuries happen. Recognize the name "Chris Marcus"? No? That's a pity.
Marcus was a 7-foot-1 center at Western Kentucky who averaged 16.7 points and led the country in rebounding at 12.1 per game as a sophomore in 2001. Instead of taking the NBA's money, Marcus returned for his junior season and suffered foot and ankle injuries that season. Career NBA games for Chris Marcus: Zero.
Unlike Marcus, who didn't plan wisely, Durant would surely enter his sophomore season at Texas with an NCAA-offered insurance policy. College athletes are eligible for roughly $5 million in insurance, which would cost in the range of $50,000.
Not bad, $5 million. You know what? Maybe Barnes is right. Maybe Durant should stay in school. He'd be risking a catastrophic injury that would mean a 90 percent reduction in lifetime earnings, but that's a fair risk, right?
Think of all the good another year in college would do ... for Rick Barnes.
