Alarm Bell

Now that the new NBA season is nearing, there are only a few remaining free agents who are actually interesting to have on your team. To me, one of the most underrated free agents (although restricted) was Charlie Bell. Yup. I wrote “was”. Apparently the Milwaukee Bucks matched the offer sheet the Miami Heat presented to him last week. This means the Bucks now have one, unhappy basketball players on their hands. Sounds like fun times for everybody!

I’m not sure what to think of this situation. Now here’s a guy who can definitely play, do a little bit of everything, doing it last season for 82 games in Milwaukee, but during the summer got unhappy about the talks that he had with the Bucks and basically wanted to be traded. He probably felt disrespected, and wanted that respect in the form of more money, who knows. So here came the Heat to the rescue, and signed him to an offer sheet worth $18 million for five years. In earlier negotiations the Bucks offered Bell $9 millions for three years, so if they would’ve let him go to join Pat Riley and friends, he would get $600.000 per season more. That, and playing with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal are better odds to do some damage in the East than staying with the Bucks. Nice team, but won’t compete for a championship soon. Oh how nice it would be to move from the chilly Wisconsin to the warmer climate of South Florida, how nice it is to dream. This became a nightmare, since Milwaukee decided to keep him.

Then again, a nightmare? When Bell’s alarm clock goes off every morning, he wakes up with the feeling knowing he will make $18 millions bucks (pun intended, sorry) in only five years, damn it. 18 million dollars! I know he said he said his heart isn’t in it anymore (when talking about the Bucks organization), but it’s not that he’s on the worst team in the League anyway, so I truly hope he will make the best of it. Charlie Bell is a good player, and a lot of teams need someone like him. And the Bucks decided they needed him the most.