In the modern era of twenty-four hour sportstalk radio, multiple ESPN cable channels and various other networks devoted to sports where pro athletes are skewered daily for various things some of their own doing and some not as a sports fan I have been staunchly pro player when it comes to contract negotiations, labor disputes and in general the business of sports.  But, in the case of the Carlos Boozer leaving the Cavaliers I have to side with management.

Carlos Boozer by agreeing to a six year 68 million offer sheet from the Utah Jazz screwed the Cleveland Cavaliers.  A plain and simple act of betrayal.

       The sad truth evident is that it didn't have to come to this.  This situation was not analogous to that of the Golden State Warriors last year with Gilbert Arenas.  The Warriors had no other choice but to let Arenas get to restricted free agency but the Cavaliers had other options.  The Cavaliers had a team option to use for Boozer's third year but at the behest of Boozer and his agent, Rob Pelinka, the team declined that option before July 1 making Boozer a restricted free agent.  The Cavaliers and Boozer's agent had discussions about this scenario going all the way back to the middle of last season.  Boozer's camp had to know the Cavaliers cap situation going into this summer and for the Cavaliers to agree not to pick up the team option both sides must have had an "understanding" that the most the Cavaliers could pay which was the average NBA salary with 12.5% raises every year or the equivalent to the midlevel exception ultimately working out to a six year contract for about 41-42 million would be sufficient.  Everything seemed to be going to plan as shortly after the NBA's Moratorium Period started it was reported that the Cavaliers had a verbal agreement with Boozer that could officially be signed July 14 when the Moratorium Period ends.  Apparently, it wasn't enough as Carlos Boozer's greed and impatience took over.

       It wasn't as if the Cavaliers wouldn't have paid Carlos Boozer if given the opportunity.  Matter of fact, they most assuredly would have done so.  He was a fan favorite and a player the team trumpeted as part of the foundation and used him as one of the faces of the organization along with LeBron James.  If Carlos Boozer really wanted to remain with the Cavaliers he had the choice of either taking the security of a deal this summer or wait a year when the Cavaliers could offer more.  In any event he still would have gotten paid.  But, if signing the offer sheet from the Jazz wasn't proof enough that Carlos Boozer just paid lip service about teaming with LeBron James over the next ten years take notice that according to Phil Miller of the Salt Lake City Tribune Boozer is allowing the Jazz to front-load the contract possibly up to the maximum allowable in the first year of the contract which would be approximately 11.25 million (25% of the projected salary cap).  The idea is to structure the contract in such a manner that it would be very difficult for the Cavaliers to match.  Does that sound like a man who wants to stay in Cleveland?

       In good conscience I cannot blame the Cavaliers in taking a proactive player friendly approach to Carlos Boozer.  The past few years the front office and ownership have been blasted by a cavalcade of players who have left team.  Tyrone Hill, Bimbo Coles, Wesley Person, Lamond Murray and Ricky Davis have all taken their shots at Cavaliers GM Jim Paxson and owner Gordon Gund after leaving the Cavaliers under various circumstances.  The team has been trying to change its image in the LeBron James Era and foster an environment where their own players would want to stay and free agents would want to come play.  All Jim Paxson and the Cavaliers brass are guilty of is entering a business deal on a good faith basis, an ever increasing rarity in today's sports world.  They could have easily been hardcore with Boozer and picked up his team option regardless of his wishes, forced him to play next year at a low salary and then dealt with him after next season on their terms.  The danger would be having a disgruntled, underpaid Boozer playing a season all the while counting down the days to when he could leave a skinflint organization.  The strategy Jim Paxson chose to take with Boozer would have never occurred without the blessing of owner Gordon Gund and other top front office decision makers but it will Paxson's head on the executioner's block unless he dusts off the salary dumping skills he used to get rid of Shawn Kemp bloated contract and body.

       Personally, I don't want Carlos Boozer back in a Cavaliers uniform and the team shouldn't either.  They should have learned from the matching of Ricky Davis' offer sheet two years ago that just by paying a guy who doesn't want to stay the money he wants it doesn't necessarily mean that everything is all well and good.  It is clear now that Boozer's good guy, team first persona was merely an act and with allowing the Jazz to structure the contract it puts the Cavaliers in a situation where they will have to liquidate player contracts in order to clear enough cap space to match the Jazz offer.  It means renouncing the free agent rights to Eric Williams which they could have use in a sign and trade deal to add a useful piece to the team and the trading of a DaJuan Wagner, DeSagana Diop, Kedrick Brown or even Zydrunas Ilgauskas to a team with enough cap room to absorb their contracts for little or nothing in return.  These players, of which 'Z' is a key member of the team, could either help the team themselves next year or be used in trade packages to further improve the team in cases of Brown, Diop and Wagner.  How can you call yourself a team player when you are willing to sacrifice teammates that could help your team win in order to get the last dollar?

       Now Carlos Boozer has the right to go out and get as much money as he can during the relatively short, finite career of a professional athlete but where integrity and ethics come into play is when you assess the number of bodies you have to step over in order to get paid.  Boozer will step over a lot of bodies as he heads west to Utah and the ripple effects beyond trying to replace 15 points and 11 rebounds per game could last for years in Cleveland.  If Jim Paxson is fired as the designated "one who must pay" in the aftermath of this debacle for not being able to clear the cap room needed to keep Boozer it means a new GM which could mean a new philosophy which could lead to a new coach and then potentially to a new style of play and the waves may not stop hitting the shores of Lake Erie until a final tsunami hits three years from now in a form that I dare not mention directly at this moment.

       The lifelong Clevelander in me can't help thinking that it is all just so Cleveland.  The prospect of a championship basketball team revolved around the greatest athlete the city has seen since Jim Brown going poof faster than Jim Chones foot snapping, Brad Daugherty back giving out, the birth of Michael Jordan and Shawn Kemp succumbing to power of cocaine all due to some of the shallowest of human impulses namely impatience and greed is simply a shame.  Just another all too fitting next chapter in the series of soul crushing occurrences in the last half century of tortured Cleveland sports.  Such is life in the Plum.       

       Even the psychopathic drug dealer Tony Montana in the movie Scarface had a code of honor he capsulated in his infamous phrase, "My balls are my word" and if Carlos Boozer indeed gave his word and then reneged out of a deal with the Cavaliers then the only words I have left to say about him is............good riddance.