Time Passes and Memories Remain – Updated

Last season, he earned around $600,000 as a sixth man who, because of injuries to his mates, became a starter for most of the year. –David Aldridge

But he’s a great player, he can play three positions. The players bargained for 53 percent. Why should it shock anybody anymore? –Jerry West

That doesn’t make it all right with everyone else. League rules frown on publicly criticizing another team’s work, but no one is very happy with the potential financial pitfalls of paying anyone other than the one-name wonders — Jordan, Bird, Magic — this kind of money. -David Aldridge

I don’t know if we reached that or if we’re going to reach that. This particular contract, in my mind, is ridiculous. That kind of money for that kind of player doesn’t make any sense. And I would tell my fellow owners that in a meeting. The front-loading is part of it. The entire salary structure as dictated by the salary cap makes some sense, but somehow there’s got to be some sense in it other than the cap — what the worth of a player is in the whole structure of things. -Abe Pollin

After our summer-long somber soirée lamenting on the wait for Tristan Thompson to re-sign, it’s only natural to assume that those quotes are in reference to our sole surviving son of Brampton, Ontario holding out until late October. While they are in reference to a beloved Cavs sixth man, they were uttered five months before Thompson was born, and were made in 1990 for Cavaliers’ legend John “Hot Rod” Williams, who succumbed to cancer last week.

Sad to hear about the passing of fmr #Phoenix @Suns John "Hot Rod" Williams – a great player & teammate for the Valley. #RIPHotRod

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) December 11, 2015

So sad to hear John "Hot Rod" Williams is no longer with us. Big man played with a lot of heart and I know his teammates loved him. RIP

— Scottie Pippen (@ScottiePippen) December 11, 2015

RIP #18 John "Hot Rod" Williams….I loved playing with you! You will be missed. May God bring comfort and blessing to your family.

— Mark Price (@Mark25Price) December 11, 2015

This is Hard To Type!! GOD Bless John "Hot Rod"Williams & His Family !! Passes at age 53! Thanks For the Fun U Brought for Me & my Family!

— Bernie Kosar (@BernieKosarQB) December 11, 2015

The outpouring of support and eulogies across the interweb for Williams’ passing shed light on the quality of a man he really was. I was too young to know much about Hot Rod during the glory years of the Embry-era Cavs. I knew that Price, Daugherty and Nance were the stars, and I saw Williams as the tough guy underneath the sweet high top fade who relieved them off of the bench. Children are self-centric and don’t develop empathy and respect for others’ selflessness until early adolescence, and I was no different. I didn’t think about how Hot Rod probably could have been an all-star on another team, and that he accepted the sixth man role, because it was what was best for the team as a whole. There’s an endless list of cliché adjectives used to describe professional athletes, and “selfless” doesn’t earn headlines in this sell the sizzle society. We are fortunate to have had a pair of altruistic players to root for in Thompson and Williams.

Williams’ and Thompson’s free agency scenarios parallel one another enough to place their correlation on the spooky spectrum. Both players entered free agency at the perfect moment, with Williams entering after the collective bargaining agreement of 1985 that yielded 53% of basketball related income going to players in 1990. Before the 1989-90 season, former Cavs GM Wayne Embry offered Williams a five-year, $11.8 million contract. Williams turned it down, and chose to the bet on himself, and was a blue print for Thompson a quarter of a century later. Brad Daugherty was sidelined for 41 games of that campaign after having a Morton’s neuroma (lump) removed from his right foot. Hot Rod’s gamble on himself paid off as he shined in a more prominent role to the tune of career best averages of 16.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg, along with 2 bpg.

While we were thoroughly agitated that Thompson held out during a seminal offseason with the Cavs on the brink of ending Cleveland’s half century and counting title drought, he never actually signed with another team—Hot Rod did. He signed a seven-year, $26.5 million contract offer from the Miami Heat (ugh) that was front loaded with a poisoned pill to prevent the Cavs from matching it. We’re mostly in agreement that Thompson’s $82 million contract will be more digestible after the cap explodes next season—Williams was the highest paid player in the NBA during the 1990-91 season, not a future hall of gamer like Jordan or Bird.

As hostile as the staring contest seemed from the outside between the GM David Griffin and Thompson’s agent Rich Paul, there was never a concrete trade scenario rumored. There were heavy rumors that Williams was nearly traded to the Seattle Supersonics (RIP), for Xavier McDaniel and Nate McMillan. Most of us have already moved on from the resentment towards Tristan that boiled over during the summer. Time heals most wounds.

After the Cavs matched Miami’s offer, Williams returned to his reserve role, and was the model citizen he had previously been, providing hustle and defending the opponents’ best front court player. If Thompson’s growth continues and he has a career that resembles Hot Rod’s, he’ll be worth every dime of his contract. If Thompson’s jumper and rim protection skills come close Williams’ level someday, he’ll be a bargain. There’s still plenty of time for Tristan to grow as a player, he’s only 24, which is ironically the same age that Williams debuted with the Cavs.