12:01.
The birds were still chirping madly as the fireball dropped behind the mountains. Birds still chirped, the crack of a bat down the street screamed of kids running bases in their own version of an All-Star Game, and unlike our brethren in Eastern Daylight Time, it was not the bewitching hour.
We could see for miles and miles.
But we also knew that the next big night in the NBA had just gotten underway. With the salary cap a tad less than expected, although still at an all-time high of $43.87 million. No doubt the players weren't as happy, considering the mid-level exception did not make it over $5 million for those teams over the salary cap shopping for free agents. Instead, it stopped short at $4.9 million, with a few more shekels tossed in to average out.
Yeah, everything was about to change, despite a hitch in the much-ballyhooed trade of Los Angeles Lakers superstar center Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler and a No. 1 pick. Sources say Lakers owner Jerry Buss gasped when he took a gander at the nearly $8 million trade kicker on top of the $54 million left on Odom's contract. Both sides would likely find happiness if Gary Payton went to Miami with his buddy Shaq to close out that deal.
Consequently, that left Lakers free-agent superstar Kobe Bryant still contemplating whether to remain in the purple and gold, or take a little less money to go across the hall in Staples Center and play for the Los Angeles Clippers. His pal Derek Fisher still had yet to determine whether he would stick with the Lakers too, or head to Houston as the perfect new point guard with the new big boys on the block starring Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady for the Rockets.
Another point guard, Steve Nash, will leave Dallas to sign a six-year contract with Phoenix.
While the Clippers were holding their breath to keep Bryant, their own restricted free-agent swingman Quentin Richardson was signing an offer sheet worth more than $45 million with the Phoenix Suns. Whether the Clippers would match or not appeared to be contingent on Bryant, but there are those who believe they will allow Richardson to bolt even if Bryant elects to stay with the Lakers as expected.
The defending champion Detroit Pistons did get it going in a hurry. They weren't going to match the preposterous $50 million offer sheet signed by backup big center Mehmet Okur, but at the same time, they were signing talented but knee-challenged Antonio McDyess to a four-year deal as a replacement for Okur and hot-shot swingman from Europe Carlos Delfino. And president Joe Dumars was optimistic they were close to locking up their All-Star forward Rasheed Wallace for at least five more years.
Attempting to keep pace with the defending champs were their formidable neighbors to the south in Indiana, dealing disgruntled forward Al Harrington to the Atlanta Hawks, who were to sign shooting guard Stephen Jackson to a six-year deal for more than $40 million and trade him to the Pacers for much needed help up front.
That left the other big question in the East dangling ... the status of New Jersey Nets All-Star Kenyon Martin, coveted by both the Hawks and the Denver Nuggets. By Wednesday night it seemed inevitable he was headed to the Nuggets, who sources say frontloaded a maximum contract with a huge signing bonus and a 15 percent trade kicker on the offer sheet to discourage the Nets, who still have the option to match any deal with Martin over the next 15 days.
The Nuggets, who already had secured their front line by re-signing Marcus Camby, used a similar tactic last season when they stole restricted free agent Andre Miller from the Clippers. And yet, it still wasn't clear whether it would be a contract that the Nets most assuredly wouldn't match, or the Nuggets would provide the Nets with a player and enough of their six first-round draft choices over the next three seasons to pacify everyone involved.
The only certainty was the Nuggets would not give up young forward Nene and it didn't appear the Nets wanted 2002 lottery bust Nikoloz Tskitishvili instead. The one aspect of the deal that nobody expected may come to fruition after all of this is new Nets owner Bruce Ratner could come riding in on his white horse and match what ever offer sheet Martin signs with the Nuggets.
Also expected was the contentious $68 million offer sheet the Cleveland Cavaliers key power forward Carlos Boozer would sign with the Utah Jazz after what the Cavs believed was an agreement for a $40 million pact to stay put. The turnabout is one of the worst breeches of trust in recent NBA history and provoked agent Rob Pelinka to terminate his representation of Boozer, regardless of the money he and his parent company SFX would lose.
There were at least a dozen more lesser deals that had been agreed to prior to the end of the moratorium, and undoubtedly more would be wrapped up over the next 24 hours, but the biggies still lingered unconfirmed as the sun rose in the dawn of a new day in the NBA.
