…Wesley Matthews? Excellent signing.

“Why would anyone want to hold anyone against their will?” Miller asked. “He’s not going to want to practice, he’s not going to want to be around his teammates. I mean, if they thought he was difficult when he was contributing, imagine how difficult he will be when he is not.”

ya… why would someone hold someone accountable to a signed contract..? such evil bastards!
what the @$*!!! are they thinking???? aside from the basic stupidity of driving down Rudy’s value, this comment borders on Patrick Ewing’s “We’re just trying to feed our families” crap back when he was the Union Rep…..

Newsflash – we’re pretty much done with you too. Nothing personal, you’re a great player but not a great fit. That’s why we signed Matthews.

Now if you or your agent had half a brain, you would stop saying garbage like “I’m done with the NBA”… you will never get traded that way, because nobody will want to trade for you, unless it’s for a bag of balls which Portland will never do.

So now is the time to go back, say that something was “lost in translation”, tell everyone you’re excited to play anywhere in the NBA this season (Portland or wherever), and start working for a deal behind the scenes so that everyone can save face in this fiasco.

…now he feels all vindicated.
Apparently Cho said to Quick that he would not release Rudy. So what now? Call Rudy’s bluff? Good! What harm can come to the Blazers if he does indeed sit out 2 years? We scare of Claver? Oooooooo! Meanwhile, Batum’s doing fine and has had a starter’s role since day one.

I wonder what other GMs think of Rudy now? Do they think that he’s a prima donna, or are they just thinking that this is just an agent blustering, and they’d be perfectly willing to give Rudy a chance?

Brandon Roy in a video with marijuana! Rudy ready to sit out the remainder of his contract. LaMarcus Aldridge bailing on playing for team USA.

This would never have happened on KP’s watch.

Before the draft: Chicago & Hinrich, Miami & Daequan Cook
Toronto draft pick
Conversations with Boston, San Antonio, Wiz (several times) about draft picks and/or players
Another source of Quick’s (not Andy Miller) says Courtney Lee was offered, but Houston backed out

Cho wants a top 15 pick, but even Rudy’s agent says he can’t garner that.
Latest offer was Chicago’s draft pick (involving pick Chicago got from Charlotte)

Earth to Rudy, you had your chance last year in the playoffs when Roy was out. Unfortunately, you played so poorly the Suns were hiding Steve Nash on you when Prtland had the ball and attacking you at will on D. Hopefully, he can shutup for a few weeks and have at least a decent showing for Spain so we can get something for him.

don’t give into demands! He made his own bed now let him lie in it.

let him sit at home and play pickup ball for the next two years. if all we lose in all this is a late first round pick, no big deal.

At least August in Portland got a hell of a lot more interesting.

in Europe because FIBA won’t allow it? I’m glad Cho said he won’t be forced into making any trade.

Rudy needs to be fined for going public with his demands. He dug his own grave by killing his trade value.

but I wouldn’t want to damage the integrity of blazersedge

Dang it Rudy! Portland was LOVING you two years ago. Many of us kept encouranging you to SHOOT last year as you struggled. Now THIS?! Man up, be a pro and adjust to the system. And for the love of all that’s holy, get over the Ariza hit that has RUINED you!

out

If he wanted to play in europe, he could do so by putting himself on the league’s Voluntarily Retired list and forfeiting his salary.

from the Larry Coon Salary Cap faq:

“There’s nothing binding about a player announcing his retirement. The player can still sign a new contract and continue playing (if he’s not under contract), or return to his team (if he is still under contract) and resume his career.

The only exception to this is when a player is still under contract, wants to quit, and his team doesn’t want to let him out of his contract. Under these circumstances the player can file for retirement with the league. The player is placed on the league’s Voluntarily Retired list, forgoes his remaining salary, and cannot return to the league for one year. The latter requirement prevents players from using retirement as an underhanded way to change teams, but can be overridden with unanimous approval from all 30 teams."

He wants to stay in the NBA. But if the Blazers don’t meet his demands, he’s going to use the nuclear option.

I think (hope?) the end-of-month FIBA world’s tourney (and the Spanish team’s prep)
is gonna do wonders for both his trade value to the rest of the NBA
and his mature, patient willingness to SHUT THE HELL UP so as to make himself maximally tradeable.
That team is full of NBA vets who should be able to pull him aside and tell him,
“Dude, you’re KILLING yourself with your attitude. Shut up, smile, play ball, and get traded, you donkey.”

Late August in Constantinople can’t come soon enough for me.

If so that may be the salvo to fire back to Rudy if you want to play hardball. I realize it wins no brownie points for the Blazers, but does it matter anymore in this situation?

“It’s unfortunate that he feels that way and it’s unfortunate he’s making these public statements. It doesn’t help the cause any at all. I don’t really feel a sense of urgency any more than I did last week.

“I’m not going to be strong-armed into making a deal.”

HAHAH way to show whose boss no more coddling this spoiled brat

S

I may be in the minority, but to me it’s just absurd for a grown man to be throwing a tantrum over a job which is paying him well over one million dollars this year alone. I don’t care if it’s basketball or tennis or running the deep fryer at Carl’s Jr. He wanted the job, he signed a contract agreeing to do the job for a very good paycheck, and that’s the reality of the situation.

In the real world that’s a lot of money, and not showing up to work is completely insane. If Coach wants him to spell the ball boy, or scrub out the showers, or spend the season operating the T-shirt gun, then quit pouting and do your job. I know professional athletics don’t really work that way, and in that world it might be a “small” contract. But from where I sit (usually in the 300’s at the Rose Garden) the whole situation is ridiculous. There are a lot of folks in Portland who work harder than this guy (for a fraction of the money he’s making) and you don’t see the newspaper filled with complaints because their jobs didn’t turn out exactly how they’d imagined. Man up and go to work, or quit your job and look for one you like better. I hear they’re hiring at Carl’s Jr.

Well, this is sad.

I will agree with all of you who say that Rudy & his agent are sure doing all they can to hurt the average Portland fan, but I continue to feel that the blame is not fairly assigned if only one party is targeted here.

Exhibit A is the way Andre Miller was treated when coming to the Blazers he appears to have been verbally convinced that he would be not only starting, but be a part of planning the team’s tactics and have quite a lot of free reign on the court.

In the end, it wasn’t until Miller exploded in an expletive filled tantrum that Nate moved him to the starting position.

Something was obviously wrong there and I feel it gives us a view into the way the system works.

Now we have Rudy who claims exactly the same thing that Miller was claiming, but isn’t the type to cuss out a coach to his face. Perhaps the type of person to have a long fuse, but when he really gets angry at you, you wake up dead!

Now, I don’t know if all of this misrepresentation is Nate’s fault, or someone else’s, but something is clearly messed up (or Rudy & Miller are just over the top divas) in the organization.

I actually hope we dont trade him now just cause he sounds like such a little punk. Suspend him, fine him, and let his Euro Team that he owes money send their henchman to collect his million dollar debt.

Dearest Rudy, I used to love you but our relationship is over. You don’t break a donkey’s leg because he’s not going fast enough. You are the reason why you are no longer trade-able.

You sealed your own fate, buddy. Hopefully you decide to not show up for work and the very day Portland is obligated to cut you your check – they find a stipulation in the contract to get out of it. =)

Venom & Snakebites,

Net Ranger

Rudy just graduated with honors from the “how to alienate an entire fan base” course.

Two years ago, this guy was on the verge of becoming my favorite player. How did it come to this?

bummer

You’d think that’d be a pretty important priority to him…

It’ll be interesting to watch Sunday’s U.S. vs. Spain game. Do you think Nate and Rudy will have any sort of interaction? Or will they pretty much just ignore each other?

was a black Fernandez jersey. Now I am embarassed to wear it to games. For sale, Cheap. Oh well… I guess all those Blake, Outlaw and Webster folks are selling theirs too….but at least those guys wanted to be here.

But we’re still waiting for the “drama.” Rudy crying about his role & demanding a trade? That just rates 1-800-WAAA.

You have an opportunity to make a lot of money in the next 10 years, and a chance to RETIRE AT AGE 34! At which time you can live the rest of your life in Spain. SUCK IT UP! You’ve got things pretty good! Make the best of it, play your guts out, honor your commitments and SHUT THE HECK UP!

He hasn’t done the organization any favors by making this a public spectacle, I don’t see why the front office should do anything other than let him sit out and lose 2 years of his career.

he’s hurting his career a lot more than he’s hurting the Blazers.

nor unexpected

Keep Almart and the other Spanish BEdgers is worth way more than whatever we could get for Rudy.

Or at least not unexpected drama.

That is all.

—Dave

And this is with the help of a professional agent ??
I’m getting a bit fed up with these parasitic agents jacking things up.
I don’t doubt Rudy is frustrated, his thinking emotionally colored, so, that is where your AGENT helps you with an objective action plan. Gee, threaten PA and Cho, that’s the plan?
How about tuning up to come in red hot so your trade value goes through the roof, Rudy ? And KEEP YO’ MOUTH SHUT, if you can’t say something constructive. Get a clue, get control. These playing years are severely limited, use them well, not sulking. The Blazers will survive, your career will take the hit with this plan.

Only gonna’ trade him if we get something out of it, if he doesn’t wanna play, fine, we won’t pay him.

Rudy’s really disappointing me and I want to throw his agent out of a moving car.

rookie 3pt record, and that’s about it.

well this totally makes me want to physically abuse my #5 Blazers jersey.. Rudy, you’re proving yourself to be not the type of player we want on our team… dude needs to man up and be a professional.

Don’t put up with that “junk”
 (vocabulary changed to adhere to terms of the “rules”)

I wish Spanish players were as cool as Spanish fans.

If you something happens to get you on his bad side. He’ll chainsaw the house in half, put “his” half on a flatbed, fishtail through the azaleas, run over the dog as he’s leaving.

I sympathize with Rudy on the reasons he is unhappy, but this is taking it too far. I want him to get what he wants as far as a trade, but he continues to complicate the situation with these types of interviews.

Might be time for a new screen name.

I’m totally ticked, and I blame his agent as much as I blame Rudy.

I believe a contract is a contract and he should fulfill it. He makes an insane amount of money (albeit cheap as far as NBA salaries go) to play a game.

This, during a time when many Oregonians can’t even find enough money to pay for the next electricity bill.

My personal impression of Rudy has plummeted through the floor in less than 24 hours.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

If Spain wants to overpay him and pretend like he’s a superstar after his NBA contract is up, let them.

Hey Rudy, I lived overseas for 3 years, was homesick and the job was a HELLUVA lot harder than playing basketball. I got paid like 1/100th of what you got paid, and my boss was a freakin’ idiot (worse than yours, trust me). I wanted to leave after about 3 weeks, but I STUCK IT OUT AND FULFILLED MY CONTRACT. It’s what responsible adults do. Get off my team.

Rudy and his agent have zero, no ZERO, leverage. Rudy’s salary is hardly worth buying out or saving. From a basketball standpoint, the Blazers really don’t need him and there wouldn’t be minutes for him anyways. Rudy is NOT playing in Europe next year. No chance. The Blazers could easily suspend him and Paul Allen has already said as much. The Blazers have a lot to lose in terms of future negoitations if they give in to this.

So, Rudy’s agent is grasping at straws. He needs Rudy traded to another NBA team.

The Blazers didn’t pull the trigger on the first trade offers. Now, Rudy’s trade value goes down.

Perhaps Miller hopes that the Blazers will now grab the first offer that comes along, or he will drive Rudy’s value even lower.

In other words, Miller’s strategy is “Every time you reject an offer, I make it worse for you, even if it’s also worse for me.”

Maybe not a good strategy, but Miller has very little to work with at this point.

" And today, besides practice, cordial conversation with my coach Nate McMillan."