ItsTheBlog™

Last week's activity in the basketball world reinforced a common motto that has been upheld by the rest of sporting sector: having money and handling it are two separate things.

This past week, the Suns made a trip to the Goodwill store. They weighed the benefits and preferred a tax write off over what Center Kurt Thomas could provide. But before Goodwill could agree to such a deal, they requested and received two first round picks in the 2008 and 2010 drafts.

Coincidentally, the Seattle Supersonics happened to be in the right place at the right time. Ah who am I kidding? The Sonics, since Shawn Kemp left, have been frequent shoppers at Goodwill. In fact this recent acquistion of Kurt Thomas they got practically free of charge. This had been their 10th purchase and because they were so responsible in getting their Goodwill card stamped each and every time, they were able to reap the benefits of Kurt Thomas only giving up 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft of 2008.

Maybe Kurt Thomas isn't what he use to be, but he's far more valuable than a 2nd round pick at this point in his career so what gives? Money. It begins with money and ends with money. Money also runs the show in between.

In an era in which contracts are guaranteed and battled over in the free market, general managers have their hands tied but still are able to manage to find that panic button and press it repeatedly. They do it during the signings and they do it in the subsequent years. Sometimes it doesn't even take a year for the GM to cut ties (ie: Jeff Weaver).

Is there someone to blame here? Or is this just an inevitable result from the type of markets, general managers are faced with today? Well if it's the latter, then it doesn't seem too appealing to become a fan of a sport in which the richest team in the league is having subsidized the contract of their best player and arguably the best player in all of the sport. (Alex Rodriguez)

While General Managers continue this behavior of firing a gun in the dark and hoping to minimize risk, other GM's should be watching and looking to take advantage of these mistakes. Nobody has done it better than Oakland's General Manager, Billy Beane. Is he the only competent manager? Or maybe he's the only one that reads the Bible, "Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle."

Fly away Kurt Thomas. Fly Away.