Tom Ziller of SBNation.com reacts to comments made by former Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy during a Tuesday press conference in which he announced his signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Blazers released Roy with the amnesty clause back in December 2011. ---------------------------------- How the situation played out included initial reports that Roy would take a medical retirement, followed by a leak of news that the team would instead waive him under the amnesty clause because it'd be better for the salary cap. If Roy had truly been retiring, there wouldn't have been a difference. But if there was a chance of a quick comeback, Roy could potentially have done to Portland what Darius Miles did years ago, but with major larger ramifications. When players medically retire, their salaries are wiped off the books (but still paid) so long as the player isn't back in the NBA within a year. At some point after the lockout ended, the Blazers decided that Roy's contract was too big a burden on their cap sheet. They knew better than any other team the dangers of medical retirement, and knew they had no other natural candidates for the amnesty clause. I'm not willing to believe a rather successful NBA franchise was legitimately torn on whether to roll the dice on whether a 27-year-old passionate about basketball would return to the game. That's why the whole charade was so insulting: it was obvious what the Blazers wanted to do. And hey, it worked. Roy's exit was a tearful goodbye to a legend whose body wouldn't cooperate, and not a cold expulsion of an albatross. Congratulations to the Blazers for pulling off a public scam. ---------------------------------- ed: text edited, bumped to front page