Filling hole or digging one?
Lewis extension is a Magic show
LAS VEGAS -- You remember the picture of that stunned fellow in a Boston bar on the night of the NBA draft lottery, with hands on his head and a look of utter shock when the Celtics' logo was pulled out of the No. 5 slot?
That's pretty much how everyone outside the inner confines of the Orlando Magic and the Players Association feel today, now that Rashard Lewis has officially signed on for more than $110 million over the next six years. The consensus: What were they thinking down in Hooterville?
Let's start with the fact this deal is believed to be one of the richest contracts handed out, although the $126 million awarded to Kevin Garnett was also known as The Deal That Touched Off The Lockout. And just who is the beneficiary? Well, he has never made an All-Pro team. He has appeared in exactly one All-Star Game, making one basket. He pretty much has one skill -- scoring -- and his career average is a Szczerbiakian 16.6, although he did light it up last season at 22.4 points per game for a horrible Seattle team. He's 6 feet 10 inches, but doesn't really crash the glass. He's played an 82-game season once since coming into the NBA in 1998.
In the most recent balloting for the All-NBA team, Lewis did not get a single vote. Not one. Considering Eddy Curry, Jason Terry, Ben Gordon, and Tyson Chandler all got votes, that zilcho is pretty telling. Even Paul Pierce got a couple of votes and he missed 35 games. And this was, statistically, Lewis's best season. His Seattle teammate, Ray Allen, got a few votes. (OK, writers and broadcasters vote, so add your own comment here.)
Don't get me wrong, Lewis is a nice player to have on your team and I had thought the Sonics should be able to make a good-faith effort (read: a lot less than $110 million) to retain him. He does fill a hole in Orlando, which can use his scoring ability. (As general manager Otis Smith put it, Lewis is someone who can "score the basketball." Gawd, can we please get rid of that stupid phrase? What else is he going to score? A quaffle?)
But what on earth convinced Smith and the higher-ups in Hooterville to open their vault, especially when there was no one else in the open market seriously competing for Lewis? Once the Bobcats spent their cap room in the Jason Richardson draft day trade, the Magic pretty much had free rein in the open market (and had to renounce Darko Milicic in the process). And they could have held their offer at five years (the most they could do) and not have it considered a sign-and-trade, which still would have paid Lewis around $90 million.
Sure, there's always the possibility that another team could have swooped in and done a sign-and-trade, but the Sonics aren't about to take on bad contracts and if such a deal ever materialized, it wasn't evident. It was pretty much Orlando or Seattle. New Seattle GM Sam Presti is here to watch his team, as is new coach P.J. Carlesimo. Neither one is losing any sleep over this one. The Sonics gladly did their part in signing Lewis and then got a huge trade exception ($9 million range) and a conditional second-round pick out of the deal. That's it. They're moving on without a complaint.
Here's another part of the deal that is hard to fathom. Didn't Orlando learn anything from the Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady signings? Sure, you can't predict a player will basically go on the injured list indefinitely, as was the case with Hill, or another player will basically force a trade, as McGrady did. But the inherent warning signs of tying up so much payroll for so many years -- and on Rashard Lewis -- were pretty much ignored.
Last season, Lewis earned $9.3 million and was slated to pocket more than $21 million for 2007-08 and 2008-09. Even those numbers seem excessive, until you remember it's the NBA and Mark Blount will earn almost $8 million next season. But now Lewis is in for a huge raise. For the next six years, the Magic are going to pay Lewis an average of nearly $19 million a season.
I'm finding it hard not to characterize this as maybe the most stupefying signing in NBA history. It even surpasses the mind-numbing $13.2 million deal Atlanta bestowed upon the lumbering Jon Koncak in 1989. Garnett, at least, is a surefire Hall of Famer, and even if you look back at some of the debatable first max contracts given out to Antoine Walker and Keith Van Horn, those were merely in the $70 million range. Or, as Lewis might call it, walking-around money.
Yesterday, the Magic gave Dwight Howard a maximum extension that is worth more than $80 million. No one will quibble with that; it was a no-brainer. Lewis's was a lame-brainer.
Peter May can be reached at P_May@globe.com. 