One Lesson From Brandon Roy's Contract Negotiations

I think he is too good of friends (or wants to think he is) with Roy to remain an unbiased journalist. I think his friendship comes in good at times when he gets a scoop or quote no one else can but at other times it seems unprofessional. I am not complaining becuase I like Quick’s stuff but I do take it with a grain of salt.

How we judge Jason has become muddy, mainly because he has done some great reporting over the years. Jason has been through a lot of changes at One Center Court, so he has been in a state of transition now that happy times are here again. There was some paranoia involved in that article, and who could blame him knowing what the past has brought. I think we can actually take comfort that the “vulcan” era of Blazer basketball is over.

We don’t know who was holding out, but if indeed it was the organization then all those panickers were right on. If there ever were a player you would want to give exactly what they wanted, it is BRoy. My question: why the wait? Why not sit him down and say, “Brandon, what do you want?” And give it to him. What is the reasoning behind not doing that? He is our superstar. Fan favorite. Just because it was bound to happen doesn’t mean that it makes sense for the organization to hold out. And for us to just sit here and say, “oh, its gonna happen, lets not worry about it” leads us back to a time when the organization doesn’t listen to the public. I for one won’t stand for that, even if it means not being “reasonable.”

I have no problem with what Quick did whatsoever. Let’s get something straight: Jason Quick is the “Team Insider” and Joe Freeman is the “Beat Writer”. It’s his job to get the goods, he provides the rumors and in this situation he was updating us with the negotiation process. It is a good thing to have a local writer giving you the information that you would read on ESPN Insider or Woj (who is a complete tool).

Ya, he probably exagerated a couple of times in that first article, but in his opinion, Roy was getting low balled and it was bad form on the Blazers part for dragging this out. Roy is just as valuable as Chris Paul is to the Hornets and as Williams is to the Jazz and they were both signed on the first day possible so it was a bit alarming that all of this was not over money but one lousy player option . Why is it that people can say whatever they want on Podcasts and on Talk Shows and not have a post written about them, but the second a Team Insider gives us some information that people were already a bit baffled by, it gets critisized.

Quick is a great writer, and you mentioned that in your post Ben. But as a huge Blazer fan, I personally like it when there is someone out there who is close to the team giving us inside information on everything going on. I like to stay updated, and the guys from ESPN, Yahoo, SI and other big outlets simply can’t give that to me.

Jason Quick wanted to get his story and point of view out first. That was not the best idea in this situation.
Quick was wrong when he wrote "Nothing, absolutely nothing, has gone right for the Blazers this summer. "

The summer wasn’t even over. He just couldn’t wait to take another stab at the Blazers and KP while aligning himself with Brandon Roy. It is almost like he wants the team to make mistakes. His information about the contract was what he heard from one side.

Quick also wrote “Word is that Roy wants to sign for the maximum allowed five years, but the Blazers only want to commit to four years. A five-year deal would cost Portland about $82 million, although it won’t be determined until the 2010-11 salary cap is set.”

He was wrong. The Blazers wanted 5 years not 4 years. Roy wanted 4 years with a player option for a 5th year.

That article is full of half-truths and not one quote from a person involved except for one word from Kevin P., the word “toxic.” That is not good journalism. Jason Quick would be good at working for the Enquirer. A beat writer is supposed to report the facts, but his desire to be “first” made the Blazers look bad. There was no need for this. It was as if the Blazers were the same old bad guys and were making all of these mistakes.

Quick was the one who made the mistake.

that Quick was going to buy Ben a Swatch for all the posts about how awesome Quick is.

Dear Ben,
That was a fantastic article. The comments on the media were so insightful and so rare. That is the perspective it is hard to find in any reporting. Thanks.
As for JQ, we all have to remember there is an insatiable thirst for news about the Blazers here in Portland. Even if the hungry masses are just going to trash it as made up news, it would kill them more to have no story. You all (fans) expect JQ to feed this never ending hunger and then you complain about the food on your plate. Just saying. Take a step back.
In his position he is the ONLY reporter in Portland right now. He out scoops about everyone who writes for the Oregonian or Oregon Live. Maybe its a fine line to walk bewteen journalistic ethics and an exposure to stardust, but you want him on that line. Yes, I’m going to write it. You need him on that line.
Frankly in this case he was right. What’s fascinating is how much of an effect his opinion had on the other news media.

but he didn’t even get the situation right. Quick reported that “Roy wants to sign for the maximum allowed five years, but the Blazers only want to commit to four years.” Didn’t we just find out that the opposite was true? The Blazers were willing to commit to five years but didn’t want to give Brandon the ETO that could shorten it to four years. Of course they gave in because Brandon held all the leverage, but seems to me Quick was just plain wrong, and his error led to a whole lot of unfair criticism of the Blazers as being cheapskates with their franchise player. Seems worthy of a mention from him, if not an apology or retraction.

or has it been a little too quiet today concerning Roy?

Even after an anticlimatic draft, Portland fans were feeling good about the team. That is until, Hedo Turkoglu chose Toronto over Portland. Even if you didn’t want Turkoglu, you still wanted Portland to be the one to reject him…not the other way around. So now we are all wondering…is Portland really a place that free agents want to play? And to make matters worse, the Blazers publicly displayed their love of Turkoglu which made the whole situation even more embarressing. Nothing like making an extreme romantic gesture, only to get publicly rejected, to make one want to crawl under a rock.

Then the story breaks that Brandon Roy wants to be in Portland for 5 years, but the Blazers don’t want to give him that opportunity with this contract. We fans and media, say “how dare you Kevin Pritchard and the Vulcans!” “We’re all feeling insecure right now, b/c Hedo spurned us. We want security, and we want it now!” Give him anything he wants! Now you get the national media involved which makes it all the more embarressing. And suddenly Kevin Pritchard is a failure and an arrogant jerk. Then the truth comes out about the holdup on the 5th year player option, but by that point everyone has made up their minds that Kevin Pritchard and Paul Allen are trying to screw Roy over. And this prompts calls for fans to sign up for one year contracts, b/c if the Blazers can’t show any long-term loyalty to Roy, then why should fans show any long-term loyalty to the team?

Eventually, we lose out on Paul Milsap and now everyone’s become an armchair GM. No one will have us.

Well guess what folks? In the end it all worked out. We got our playmaking free agent upgrade. And we signed Roy to the long-term deal that was going to happen all along. But we are fans. And that makes us irrational. We won’t learn our lesson. We never do. The next little thing will get us upset and we will be certain that we are headed back to obsecurity. We go on the emotional roller coaster, that’s what we do.