Deng playing for GB in the summer?!

[hardguy]

Just wondering what can the Bulls do contractually to Deng if he insists on playing for the GB team this summer? Does anyone know if there are any clauses in his rediculous contract that can stop him from jeopardizing next season also by play this summer when he should be resting his leg or lift some weights so he won't be so SOFT?!

 

[dougthonus]

In Mike McGraw's closing article, I believe he quotes Deng as saying that he wouldn't play for GB this year if the Bulls asked him not to. That he wants to, but understands the importance of his NBA career.

(Maybe it was KC Johnsons article though)

As a side note, I've read conflicting reports on this. One report said that if Deng is not covered under the NBA group insurance policy (he's not) then the Bulls don't have to release him to play internationally if they don't want to. One site implied if he had any insurance then the Bulls had to release him. He did get insurance last year, but with his injury situation this year whether or not he could get insurance again and at what cost to GB, and whether the Bulls need to agree or not is all a little vague.

 

[clonetrooper264]

If Deng values playing in the NBA at all, he won't play with GB, especially since he's not insured.

 

[sabixx]

if he does Im going to lose all respect for him. it would basically be saying he doesn't care about all the money the bulls gave him or his future in the nba.

 

[Dpauley23]

Thats pretty idiotic statement considering he feels obligation to this country for saving his life. If you don't feel the same way then you don't have much of soul

 

[pinkizdead]

Dpauley23 wrote:

Thats pretty idiotic statement considering he feels obligation to this country for saving his life. If you don't feel the same way then you don't have much of soul

i'd rather have a souless deng that is capable of playing basketball for a season. Honestly if it was a matter of national pride and millions of dollars, i'd go with the millions. blank playing basketball for my country. i'd rather be well off. if you dont make the same decession, eh, hmm?

 

[PJ Brown]

Dpauley23 wrote:

Thats pretty idiotic statement considering he feels obligation to this country for saving his life. If you don't feel the same way then you don't have much of soul

That's a rather unfortunate way of putting things, but I do have some sympathy for the argument you seem to be making. It's easy for us to say there's no way in hell he should play but then none of us are in a position of being the face of basketball for an entire nation, yet alone a nation to which we feel we may just owe our lives.

As a Bulls fan, I rather passionately hope he chooses to sit it all out and put his NBA obligation first, but I can't push myself to sour on him if he feels obliged to represent his country.

In general, I'm just not comfortable with this trend to paint Deng as a villain because fans are unhappy with the first year of the big deal went. Everything I've seen about him is that he's a very hard working guy and certainly a decent chap. That doesn't mean we don't hesitate to cut the ties when it comes to it, but it also doesn't mean I'm going to jump on the hatewagon.

 

[mlewinth]

Dpauley23 wrote:

Thats pretty idiotic statement considering he feels obligation to this country for saving his life. If you don't feel the same way then you don't have much of soul

I am sorry, but that is simply one of the dumbest things I have ever read. If he wants to give back to the country that "Saved his life" why not donate your salary to goodwill in London..that will help. Great Britten is shit at bball whether Deng plays for them or not. If you want to talk about "saving his life", lets talk about the $80 mill the Bulls gave Deng. He most certiantly did not have that kind of life changing cash comming out of Duke. I am all for playing for your country, but if you sat out a major chunk of the year due to injury, your obligation needs to be to your employer, otherwise, give us back the cash, play for Great Britten and work for McDonalds.

 

[Diddy1122]

mlewinth wrote:

Dpauley23 wrote:

Thats pretty idiotic statement considering he feels obligation to this country for saving his life. If you don't feel the same way then you don't have much of soul

I am sorry, but that is simply one of the dumbest things I have ever read. If he wants to give back to the country that "Saved his life" why not donate your salary to goodwill in London..that will help. Great Britten is shit at bball whether Deng plays for them or not. If you want to talk about "saving his life", lets talk about the $80 mill the Bulls gave Deng. He most certiantly did not have that kind of life changing cash comming out of Duke. I am all for playing for your country, but if you sat out a major chunk of the year due to injury, your obligation needs to be to your employer, otherwise, give us back the cash, play for Great Britten and work for McDonalds.

I understand what Dpauley is saying Mark and it's definitely not the dumbest thing I've ever read. And understand that this isn't just playing for the country that saved his life, but being the face of Great Britain Basketball and one of the faces of the 2012 Olympics. This is about having your country represented in a sport it has never been represented in as it hosts the Olympic games. It's obviously extremely important to Deng, not just as a source of pride for himself, but his adopted country as well.

And I don't believe he will play, because of the hit his image has taken, and he won't be able to get insured. I'm not the biggest Deng fan anyway, but I'm not gonna rip the guy for having that much pride for his country.

 

[Shakes]

Maybe it's a cultural thing ... here in Australia you'd be considered a complete wanker if you didn't play for your country in the Olympics because you wanted to make money playing professional sport. I get the feeling from reading this conversation that the Olympics aren't considered such a big deal in the US.

 

[sabixx]

the country saving his life and playing in a meaningless basketball tournament have nothing to do with each, and its really stupid to relate them. you really think Deng is 'helping' his country by playing? are they a better team with him? probably, but so what? its just a basketball game,he should be donating money,building schools, helping with kids.

if its so important to play for his country, why doesn't just play there all the time? why didn't he play there in school? why is it that he rejects contract offers from us but is willing to play for them for free? because the bulls are a 2nd priority, and you don't win titles with people who think like that.
you want to talk about pride, lets talk about being a professional and not treating your job like its 2nd place.

if Deng wants to play, thats his decision,but it'll just prove he cares more about some tournament than his career, and it'll prove the bulls made a huge mistake with him, and should try to rid of him. he clearly has more important things in his mind than winning a title, so get out.

 

[mlewinth]

Shakes wrote:

Maybe it's a cultural thing ... here in Australia you'd be considered a complete wanker if you didn't play for your country in the Olympics because you wanted to make money playing professional sport. I get the feeling from reading this conversation that the Olympics aren't considered such a big deal in the US.

They are a big deal here, however, hes not choosing money over his country. He already chose money. He got paid and is comming off an injury. I am all for playing for your country, but your #1 priority needs to be the team paying you. The bulls lost a whole season with him because of his commitment to GB. Deng is fragile. He is not the typeo of player who can play for 12 months straight. Again, I am all for Deng playing for his country next season. Just give your body a summer to heal, he sucked the whole year!

 

[engies]

Shakes wrote:

Maybe it's a cultural thing ... here in Australia you'd be considered a complete wanker if you didn't play for your country in the Olympics because you wanted to make money playing professional sport. I get the feeling from reading this conversation that the Olympics aren't considered such a big deal in the US.

:laugh: good to see the word "wanker" used on a US forum. To everyone else in the world....it means "jerk-off" (pretty much in its literal context at times)

 

[dougthonus]

In general, I'm just not comfortable with this trend to paint Deng as a villain because fans are unhappy with the first year of the big deal went. Everything I've seen about him is that he's a very hard working guy and certainly a decent chap. That doesn't mean we don't hesitate to cut the ties when it comes to it, but it also doesn't mean I'm going to jump on the hatewagon.

I agree with this completely. If Deng ends up overpaid, blame management. All players take the best deal they can. Deng's definitely a very hard worker and a good guy. I can understand the dislike for his play this season, but I'm not going to get on him at a personal level like many people seem to be tehse days.

 

[dougthonus]

sabixx wrote:

the country saving his life and playing in a meaningless basketball tournament have nothing to do with each, and its really stupid to relate them. you really think Deng is 'helping' his country by playing? are they a better team with him? probably, but so what? its just a basketball game,he should be donating money,building schools, helping with kids.

if its so important to play for his country, why doesn't just play there all the time? why didn't he play there in school? why is it that he rejects contract offers from us but is willing to play for them for free? because the bulls are a 2nd priority, and you don't win titles with people who think like that.
you want to talk about pride, lets talk about being a professional and not treating your job like its 2nd place.

if Deng wants to play, thats his decision,but it'll just prove he cares more about some tournament than his career, and it'll prove the bulls made a huge mistake with him, and should try to rid of him. he clearly has more important things in his mind than winning a title, so get out.

The Bulls knew playing internationally was important to Deng. He gave them a deadline of the date his international tournament started to get his deal done.

Still, Deng came out and said in his exit interview that he'd like to play internationally but would respect the Bulls wishes (when he isn't obligated to do so as far as I know), so I think people shouldn't paint him in such a negative light.

And GB did save his life, and the life of his family, and they badly want him to play, so I think there is validity to that argument. It clearly means a lot to him. If someone saved my life, I'd sure as heck sacrifice a lot in order to help them.

 

[sabixx]

if he wants to sacrifice for them, thats his decision, but it'd still prove that the bulls need to move on, he has things he values higher than a title and will never give all his effort to the bulls because of that. playing for GB again would just prove that. the man can't even stand up to cheer during a game 7, but he can play through injuries for GB? its clear where his priorities are, and its not winning a title.

 

[Hendu0520]

I think the problem here is that he is not playing for our team. If Deng turned down to play for our country maybe we would be more upset. But we know that GB won't even make the Olympics and they don't really care about missing it either. So just because one or two guys in the British Olympic Committee try and hold that over Deng's head doesn't mean he should go to play for them. Where are all these people making their money, The U.S. so we don't like it when they say they could care less when we are paying his salary basically.

 

[hardguy]

I think there are many other ways to pay back the country that saved his and his family's lives other than playing in a pretty meaningless basketball tournament in my opinion. I mean it's not like Deng is the difference between GB winning this Euro basketball tournament. GB would not be able to hang with most of the other countries' national team if GB had five Luol Deng on its team! If Deng wanted to pay his country back, try building some schools like Oprah or building a few hospitals like Mutombo with some of that 70 mil he'll be getting from the Bulls. That'd be more of a sacrifice to me and more of GB's people would benefit from schools and or hospitals rather than watching him score 20 points a game when his team is getting thrashed by 30 or 40 on tv.