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Chris Johnson, Chris Wright and the Vagaries of NBA Contracts
Chris Johnson, Chris Wright and the Vagaries of NBA Contracts
Published by Swampy Meadows
10-23-2014
Chris Johnson, Chris Wright and the Vagaries of NBA Contracts

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- The eminent philosopher Mongo summed up the plight of Chris Johnson, Chris Wright and all of the other fringe NBA players in the classic flick Blazing Saddles when he said:

“Mongo only pawn in game of life”

Pawn indeed. When Flyer fans checked in on CJ last NBA season, he had signed a contract with the Celtics for the remainder of the 2013-14 season and for the 2014-15 campaign. He looked great in 12 games, playing 20 minutes per contest and averaging 7 PPG and the hope was that his hustle and three point shooting would allow him to somehow squeeze onto the C’s roster this season. The key condition of Chris’ contract was that none of those dollars were guaranteed. When Danny Ainge made a trade with Cleveland and picked up three warm bodies, CJ got caught in a numbers game and was released on September 25th. Four days later he would be signed by the Philadelphia 76ers, who currently have an unwieldy 20 players on their squad, 13 of them with guaranteed contracts. Johnson is competing with seven other guys -- including Ohio native JaKarr Sampson -- for two open roster spots.

Frying pan meet fire

It is with this background in mind that the 76ers tankapalooza travelling medicine show checked into the Palace of Auburn Hills to play the Pistons on Thursday night. “From the Swamp” had actually scored a pair of free ducats for the exhibition game, but when a conflicting work function popped up for that evening, I decided to take a pass on seeing CJ play in a game that had all of the import of a pickup game at Birmingham Groves HS. Chris made a strong showing, netting 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 31 minutes of action in a 109-103 Philly loss. NBA teams have to cut down to 15 players on October 27th, so Chris will learn his fate shortly.

The Chris Wright story is even more convoluted. Similarly signed by the Milwaukee Bucks last season to a non-guaranteed deal for the rest of the 2013-14 season and all of this year, he played in the NBA Summer League for the Bucks, made a bunch of PR appearances for the team and he even seemed to hit it off with the Bucks’ owner. However, faced with an unfavorable game of roster roulette, Chris asked for and received his release from Milwaukee in the hopes of signing with the Greek club Panathinaikos. CW couldn’t commit to play overseas until he was released; once he was, the Greek squad promptly signed another American hoopster to whom they had dangled a similar enticement and left our boy high and dry. Chris passed on the chance to sign with a team in Turkey, which given the current state of affairs in that part of the world makes perfects sense. His next destination is yet to be determined.

Thankfully for Flyer fans, Brian Roberts inked a guaranteed deal with the Charlotte Hornets that will keep him in The League for the next two campaigns.

The moral of the story on the vagaries of NBA contracts is this:

Vagaries make vagabonds

The NBA recently announced that it had signed a nine year $24 billion TV deal with Disney and Turner that will only serve to further widen the gulf between the NBA haves and the have-nots. Let’s face it, LeBron, Kobe and Kevin Durant et al are gonna get theirs, especially if the NBA eliminates "max" contracts. David Aldridge from NBA.com explains:

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/feature...tan-van-gundy/

Meanwhile, guys like CW, CJ and dozens of other players just like them are going to get league minimum and bounce around from team to team. Why? Because they are interchangeable parts. NBA GMs will build their rosters with one or two superstars, a handful of veteran role players and fill out the rest of the squad with gypsies.

Grantland explains how perverted some of the NBA contracts for fringe players can get, even 2nd round draft choices:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/k-...eed-contracts/

Last year, there were three UD Flyers in the NBA; this year: beyond B-Rob who the heck knows? The only thing we can say for certain is that guys like Chris Johnson and Chris Wright will bust their backsides to stick in The League...just don't expect them to stay in one place for too long.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com
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  #1  
By Bud Meadows on 10-29-2014, 11:35 PM
The Flyers need to sign 6 year old Nolan Meadows of the Alphonsus Academy Rockets. In his final game in the "Little Dribblers League", Nolan's team won 20-18 in O.T. Nolan scored all 20 points for his team.
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