For some dedicated sports fans the NBA’s trade deadline is like the second coming of Christmas. Visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads are replaced by thoughts of potential starting line-ups and player combinations.
The rumour mill is the only source of insight for anxious fans and, like at Christmas, the expectations are always greater than the results. This year’s deadline proved to be no different.
Once again this year’s trade deadline was ripe with speculation, as Minnesota followed Philadelphia’s lead by allegedly shopping their franchise player, Kevin Garnett; however, any talk of swapping Garnett for Allen Iverson was quickly quashed.
This year’s deadline followed the same trend as it passed on February 23. It went by without a whimper since no major deals with any real playoff implications ensued. The only high-profile trade involved two struggling teams, as New York acquired Steve Francis from Orlando for Trevor Ariza and Penny Hardaway.
The biggest trade was a nine-player deal involving four teams: Earl Watson and Byron Russell went to Seattle; Reggie Evans, Ruben Patterson, and Charles Smith will now play for Denver; Voshon Lenard and Brian Skinner were shipped to Portland; and Vitaly Potapenko and Sergei Monia found themselves in the Sacramento Kings organization.
Denver, Cleveland, Miami, and New Jersey were the only playoff teams that made deals: Cleveland acquired backup Ronald Murray from Seattle for “Milk” Wilks, Miami acquired veteran Derek Anderson from Houston for Gerald Fitch, and New Jersey received shooter Bostjan Nachbar from New Orleans for Marc Jackson and Linton Johnson.
In terms of pro sports trades, news from the NBA dominates the month of February. However, this year’s deadline talk was greatly overshadowed by the NFL and one of the most absurd trades in sports history.
Disney/ABC traded Monday Night Football announcer Al Michaels to NBC for the rights to broadcast the next four Ryder Cups, increased Olympic highlights, and the rights to cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit on February 10. Both sides could not be happier: Michaels did not agree with the direction ABC was taking and wanted out, while Disney is reunited with the character that Walt Disney lost to NBC Universal in the 1920s. Losing Oswald motivated Disney to form his own company and create his Mickey Mouse Empire soon after.
