导出博客文章CINCINNATI -- Xavier coach Chris Mack saw quite a bit of growth from his team in
just two days between a narrow season-opening win over Lehigh to a more decisive
33-point victory over Buffalo on Monday.Its November 14, so we have a lot of
room for growth, Mack said. It was by far the best (performance) for our
newcomers, which is a really good sign.On Thursday, the 11th-ranked Musketeers
begin play in the Tire Pros Invitational at HP Fieldhouse in Orlando, Fla., the
site of one of last seasons signature moments when they captured the Advocare
Invitational with victories over Alabama, USC and Dayton.Xavier (2-0) will face
the Missouri Tigers (1-0), a team they have beaten three straight times. The
Musketeers topped Mizzou 78-66 last year at Cintas Center in Cincinnati.We
havent really talked about the competition were going to face in Orlando, Xavier
senior forward Rashid Gaston said. Were going to play some pretty good
teams.Joining the Musketeers and Tigers in Orlando are Oklahoma, Tulane,
Northern Iowa, Arizona State, Clemson and Davidson.Like Xavier, Missouri showed
significant improvement in recent days.After a seven-point win over Central
Missouri in an exhibition game, the Tigers were impressive in routing Alabama
A&M 99-44 Sunday in their home opener.We werent very good eight days ago
(against Central Missouri), Tigers coach Kim Anderson told the Kansas City Star.
and we knew we werent very good.Frankie Hughes scored 23 points against Alabama
A&M, tying a school record for points scored in a freshman debut. Missouri
is a young team, with three sophomores and two freshmen among the starters.The
Tigers will look to extend Xaviers perimeter defense on Thursday. After shooting
31 percent from 3-point range last season, Mizzou drained 8 of 16 attempts from
beyond the arc on Sunday.We need outside shooting, because that was a struggle
for us last year, obviously, Anderson said.Defense is where Xavier is looking to
make its biggest strides. After allowing 81 points to Lehigh, the Musketeers
held Buffalo to just 53 on Monday, limiting the Bulls to 31 percent shooting and
forcing 21 turnovers.Some of the things we emphasized (in practice) -- taking
care of the ball, playing a little bit longer into the shot clock, defensive
intensity, crowding the floor a little bit more, I think we took a step forward,
Mack said.The Musketeers continue to deal with depth issues. Senior guard Myles
Davis is still suspended due to an incident involving his ex-girlfriends
property, and sophomore forward Kaiser Gates is working his way back from a knee
injury. On Monday, Xavier had four players in double figures, led by Trevon
Bluiett with 18 points.Xavier and Missouri have only played six times
previously, but there is plenty of history between the two programs.One of the
most significant victories in Xaviers program history came against the Tigers in
the first round of the 1987 NCAA Tournament. The 70-69 upset win was the
first-ever NCAA Tournament victory for the Musketeers. Byron Larkin, now the
color analyst on Xaviers radio broadcasts, scored 29 points in that game to lead
all scorers.Missouri hasnt beaten the Musketeers since 2001, a 72-60 victory in
the Wooden Tradition Classic in Indianapolis.
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Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in
Canadas Road of the Rings in December. On July 2, not 48 hours into the
financial chaos of free agency, the newest face of basketball opulence stood
over a hotel toilet and barfed.Tyler Johnson had been told for weeks that this
would be the most lucrative offseason for a semi-anonymous backup combo guard in
NBA history. His agents said so. His superstar teammate on the Heat, Chris Bosh,
said so. But now, on Day 2 of free agency, the numbers Johnson had heard -- 8
million per year ... no, 9 million ... no, wait, 10 million -- somehow looked
conservative. Serious multiperson delegations from the Rockets, Kings and Nets
had all come to downtown Chicago, where Johnsons agents are based, to meet the
24-year-old. The fact that hed averaged only 7.4 points for Miami over 68 career
games -- less than one full season -- deterred none of the general managers or
coaches paying homage. I kept feeling like someone was going to be like, Psych!
Just kidding! None of this is real!? Johnson says.To pry him away from Miami,
which had the right to match any contract, the Nets phoned Johnsons agents with
a ballooning, back-loaded offer -- one that caused him to lie, facedown, on the
carpet of their office.And then flee, minutes later, for the safety of his hotel
room across the street. And then call his mother, Jennifer, back home in
Mountain View, California, to cryptically exhale, We did it. And then vomit --
not once but twice -- as the sheer thought of a four-year, $50 million contract
caused Tylers body to revolt against his brain.S---, Bosh said after hearing the
news. Fifty?We hadnt even come to a decision yet, Johnson recalls of the ongoing
bidding war, but I didnt know how to react.ON THE OFF chance that youd heard of
Tyler Johnson before encountering this story, it was likely thanks to the
following sentiment: These guys are ridiculously overpaid.Which is
understandable. As any self-respecting NBA nerd can tell you, the salary cap
abruptly surged from $70 million last season to $94 million this season, the
scheduled result of a nine-year, $24 billion broadcast rights deal the league
signed with Turner and ESPN in 2014. And so it was, in July, that front offices
earmarked roughly $3 billion guaranteed for players over the first 96 hours of
free agency alone.Call me a hater, Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams said
on Twitter, echoing his NFL colleagues, but these NBA deals are insane. Now
making it rain? The obscure, questionable likes of Timofey Mozgov (four years,
$64 million from the Lakers), Evan Turner (four years, $70 million from the
Trail Blazers), Solomon Hill (four years, $48 million from the Pelicans), Kent
Bazemore (four years, $70 million from the Hawks) and on and on. Michael Jordan,
it was pointed out, made a comparatively modest $94 million in salary over his
15-year career. An organism like Tyler Johnson making more than half of Jordans
earnings in a single contract seemed epically undeserved.HoopsHype.com declared
Johnson one of the three worst signings of free agency 2016. USA Today wrote, I
know hes shown flashes, but that seems like way too much money to invest in his
potential. Johnson, who shoots a respectable 38 percent from 3, could not help
but sarcastically hit like on this tweet: You want 10mil just to miss wide open
shots and lose teeth every time someone runs into you. Be gone white boy. Four
days after that, he encountered a poll tweeted by a Miami fan account that
asked, Should the Heat match the Nets offer for Tyler Johnson?Of the 995
respondents, 73 percent said no.People were like, Who is this guy? I have to
look his name up on Google,? Johnson says now. They dont look at me and see $50
million, necessarily.Its early August, and the 6-foot-4, 185-pound Johnson is
wearing slides, shorts and a T-shirt in the lobby bar of the Fontainebleau Miami
Beach. Unlike the conspicuously built Mozgov, or Turner, or Bazemore, or Hill,
the pale, high-flying Johnson isnt obviously an NBA player. Not even to NBA
players. After he swatted an Andre Miller finger roll during the 2014-15 season,
Miller confessed, in genuine bewilderment, I definitely didnt think you had
that. And Johnson notes that when he grows out his closely cropped brown hair,
his identity is even more masked -- as evidenced, in part, by the increase in
strangers who call him white boy. (Tylers father, Milton, is black.)As for that
tooth insult: Johnson is missing one of his lower incisors, the victim of a
summer league collision last year. Im just letting it rock right now, he
explains with a wide, gap-toothed grin. I got my girl. Im engaged. Im in no
rush.Except when he is. Everybody who knows Johnson notes that he vibrates with
a certain restlessness. Im sure he lost weight during the process of this thing,
his mother says. He wasnt able to eat well, not even when we were waiting the
few days to see if the Heat were gonna keep him.By that point, Tylers teammates
had already waved farewell on Twitter. Johnson had already started bookmarking
Brooklyn real estate on Zillow.com. Ashley, his fiancée, had even gone online
and shipped a box of Nets-branded shirts and pants for their 2-year-old son,
Dameon, to their Miami condo.Yet on July 10, the Heat vowed to back up the truck
for a player theyd cut in the 2014 preseason and sent to the D-Leagues Sioux
Falls Skyforce. Billionaire owner Micky Arison, whod just let 34-year-old Dwyane
Wade sign with Chicago, wanted to save Johnson. And while the Fresno State grad
now cost a reasonable $5.6 million in Year 1 and $5.9 million in Year 2, those
devious Nets had driven his price up to $18.9 million in Year 3 and $19.6
million in Year 4.All of which is to say that Johnson and his obscure,
questionable NBA cohorts -- Mozgov, Turner, Bazemore, Hill et al. -- are
absolutely overpaid, yes.But theres a lot more to why the NBA overpaid free
agents in the summer. And theres more to Johnsons story than the fact that he
fell into a crazy sum of money.WHENEVER HER FIVE children were moved to tears,
Master Sgt. Jennifer Johnson repeated a slogan: Get a straw and suck it up.
Meaning: Dont be a crybaby, the single mom and 31-year Air Force veteran recalls
now. Figure out what you gotta do.Shed say it for everything, Tyler says. Its
the most annoying saying ever.Whenever Jennifer, an airfield manager, suddenly
had to deploy to Bosnia or Turkey or Djibouti or Qatar, often for months at a
time? Tyler got a straw. (Each of the Johnson kids crashed with the family of a
classmate.) Whenever money ran low, forcing everyone in the family to pinch
pennies? Tyler got a straw. (One month, just before he entered third grade, the
Johnsons even moved into a tent on a campground.) Whenever financial aid at
Mountain View powerhouse St. Francis High required work during the semester?
Tyler got a straw. (Sometimes literally: He served lunch to his
classmates.)Because of his moms profession, Johnson had attended five different
schools by the sixth grade. Milton, the man whose athleticism Tyler says he
inherited, had left by the time his son got to high school. But Tylers mission
-- as declared in drawings, poems and unrelated homework assignments -- never
changed. Hed always tell me, Im going to the NBA,? Jennifer says. And Im going
to take you with me.Its impossible to miss how her straw slogan shaped Tylers
game. In seventh grade, he played with a right arm he didnt know was fractured.
As a 5-8, 140-pound sophomore at St. Francis, he failed to make varsity, but he
didnt relent. As a senior, when he received zero interest from major college
programs, he played in a tournament on a torn meniscus. To this day, Johnsons
coaches from Fresno State rave about the time he shattered two (other) teeth
diving for a loose ball in a drill ... then picked up the scattered shards of
enamel ... and kept practicing.Such restlessness translated into a souped-up
version of what scouts euphemistically call motor. Sometimes Tyler will bristle
when I tell him, Hey, youve got grit, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says. He may
take that as, You dont have talent. But his toughness is absolutely talent.Last
summer, for instance, he had two metal plates inserted into his jaw after he
sprinted into Magic forward Branden Dawson during summer league. (Good screen,
Johnson recalls.) And this past February, at long last, the left-hander
underwent surgery to address a soreness in his left shoulder that hed first
ignored as a college senior. Not until Johnsons rotator cuff gave out against
Brooklyn in January -- he airballed a floater -- did he finally let up.By March,
weeks into recovery, Spoelstra had to summon Johnson into his quarters at
AmericanAirlines Arena. When healthy, the guard had always insisted on doing an
extra regimen of pre-practice workouts and post-practice drills. Spoelstra just
wanted to ensure that Johnson, in rehab, was following doctors orders and not
rushing back for the playoffs that sprinng.dddddddddddd No, no, no, dont worry
about me, Johnson assured.So whos this? Spoelstra replied, before hitting play
on an office monitor. Arena security footage, taken shortly before midnight,
unmistakably showed Johnson sneaking in to do drills on the court. The
punishment: $500 for an unsupervised workout without clearance from a team
physician -- an infraction, Spoelstra admits, that he had to invent on the
spot.Slow the f--- down, Bosh recently told Johnson. Chill out. You only have
one speed. You go from fast to fast.IN THE NBA, the question of who deserves
what actually has an answer. An arcane 153,133-word answer. The leagues
collective bargaining agreement, last renegotiated in 2011, exists as part Magna
Carta, establishing peace between owners and players, and part tax code,
detailing the rules of finance. Its 551 pages constitute the most important
document in basketball. And as the hysterics around free agency 2016 proved, an
overwhelming majority of us couldnt care less.If we did? It would be clear that,
by rule, half of the record $24 billion in rights fees flooding the NBA
marketplace has to be spent on players. It would be clear that every billionaire
owner is required to pay his roster at least 90 percent of the salary cap every
season, creating a salary floor that spiked from $63 million last year to $85
million this year. And it would be clear that righteous condemnation of Johnson
and his cohorts might not make a ton of sense.The timing of Johnsons expiring
contract was essential to his windfall, admittedly. But in a market, timing is
always everything. Just look at the available shooting guards this summer, says
Austin Brown, one of Johnsons agents. The top options under age 34 -- DeMar
DeRozan, Bradley Beal, Jordan Clarkson, Nicolas Batum and Evan Fournier -- all
immediately re-upped with their original teams on July 1. From there, it was no
accident that Brook Lopez, the Nets star center, flew out with team officials to
woo Johnson. Or that Rockets coach Mike DAntoni wined and dined him. Heck, Vlade
Divac and Peja Stojakovic, two Kings stars-turned-executives, both showed up and
topped Brooklyns offer. Even then, famously cutthroat Heat president Pat Riley
matched every single penny.No one was fooled into giving away $50 million.
Exactly the opposite: A rational market deemed Johnson worth exactly that.But
when it comes to player paychecks, many fans see these startling fortunes from
the perspective of management: as costs to keep down. This is partly because of
Americas surging fetish for front office executives; thanks to some combination
of fantasy sports and Moneyball, we are no longer a nation of aspiring athletes
but vicarious bargain hunters.But mostly, we empathize with ownership because
its sports. Fans have always been conditioned to root for teams -- proxies for
our hometowns and our childhoods -- over the individuals who actually star in
the games we cherish. A billionaire owner gets to embody the organization,
gladly taking tax breaks and public money. A millionaire player, meanwhile, is
more dangerous than any other type of entertainer. An actors not leaving your
hometown to go somewhere else, Johnson says. An athlete threatens to betray you
and those you love.FOR ALL THIS talk of capitalism and market value, however,
even Tyler Johnson must concede that Tyler Johnson is overpaid. Thats because
the NBAs brand of capitalism, as detailed in the CBA, requires an asterisk. It
is not quite capitalism. And the NBAs free market, as rational as it might be,
is not quite free.Understand: The salary cap has regulated payroll -- and, in
ownerships view, enriched competitive balance -- since 1994. But just as
critical, in tandem, are the caps two cousins: the rookie wage scale, which has
limited the earnings of the leagues youngest players since 1995, and the maximum
contract, which has done the same for the leagues superstars since 1999.Within
those 551 pages of rules, it is decreed that no player can earn more than 35
percent of the salary cap -- and that he needs 10 years of experience to qualify
for that maximum share. Six or fewer years limits a player to 25 percent of the
cap, max; seven to nine years, 30 percent. I dont know of any space other than
the world of sports where theres this notion that we will artificially deflate
what someones able to make, just because, Michele Roberts, the executive
director of the NBA players association, told ESPN in 2014, months after she was
hired. Its incredibly un-American. My DNA is offended by it.But Johnson -- like
most of the NBAs 440-some-odd players -- is not offended. At all. He is
refreshingly upfront about the reality that he benefits from the economic
squeezing of rookies and stars. I have no complaints, Johnson says. It worked
out in my favor. Players such as Johnson are overpaid because they, like owners,
wish to profit from the rules too.Its basic math. Without the max contract,
league sources say, LeBron James would warrant significantly more than his $31
million annual salary, drying up the well for the lesser players on the roster.
Instead, in the world of capped spending, James prompts us to consider an
unsympathetic riddle: How can the NBAs highest-paid player still qualify as
crazily underpaid?No, not every superstar has agita over the boost given to the
rank and file, and no one pretends to worry about a max player making ends meet.
I dont like to say, If this was an open market, I wouldve been making more,?
says Bosh, who signed a four-year, $114 million max contract in 2014. Im happy
for those guys.But with the CBA up for renegotiation in December, a curious
political dynamic has a chance to shift. Roberts, for one, has basically
condemned the max contract as unpatriotic. And the union, after being led by
three consecutive role players (Michael Curry, Antonio Davis and Derek Fisher),
is now under the direction of two max superstars -- placing them right across
the table from commissioner Adam Silver.Meet union president Chris Paul and his
first vice president, LeBron James. Although theyve remained publicly silent on
this issue, both of them know what they could be worth. And for reasons of
principle and self-interest, both of them could push for the abolition of the
max contract.ITS LATE AUGUST now, and Johnson is sitting with Ashley and Dameon
in their rented two-bedroom on the 29th floor of a condo tower in Miami. In
front of a modestly sized RCA flat-screen in the living room sits an infants
play mat. Packed plastic bins -- one hiding the Nets gear Ashley ordered -- line
the blue-gray walls. At around 1,000 square feet, its delightful for two young
parents.It is also one-twelfth the size of the roughly $5 million
Mediterranean-style mansion Tyler just bought in Pinecrest, where theyll be
moving in a few weeks. I cant wait to get there, he says, scrolling through the
Zillow listing on his iPhone. Its got, like, crown moldings on all the ceilings.
Which I guess is a big thing.His biggest offseason concern remains rehab:
slowing down, under medical advisement, in an attempt to fully heal his left
shoulder. It first got sore at Fresno, he says, because I was shooting an
unnecessary amount. Hed walk into the gym and fire until, in his words, his
technique felt right. The routine was so familiar that a pregnant Ashley would
come to the gym with her laptop and write papers on the sideline.But now, Tyler
knows, his obsession was part of the problem. There are some issues that cannot
be solved by getting a straw. These days, he says, I pay a little more attention
to how Im actually feeling.It is not a courtesy he wishes to extend to his
critics. Johnson wisely presumes that behind closed doors, there is envy around
the league. But he has also resolved that he will not bend over backward to
explain to anybody, anywhere, why Miami gave him a raise of more than 2,000
percent. I wont bother explaining the salary cap, that the game is different now
than it was before, Johnson says. Its hard to break all that stuff down.Besides:
He didnt get into this business -- sacrificing shoulders, teeth, arms, legs and
jaws -- for crown moldings. That is not why he remains so restless.My goal in
the NBA wasnt to make a bunch of money, Johnson says. When its all said and
done? I just want people to say, Man, that kid could play.? Pablo S. TorreTorre
is a senior writer for ESPN based in Brooklyn, NY. He can frequently be seen on
Around The Horn and The Sports Reporters, among other TV programs. Previously,
he worked at Sports Illustrated. join the conversation follow @PabloTorre follow
@ESPN ' ' '
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