There's little doubt that the extended drama involved in Lamar Odom's threat to sign with Miami was nothing more than a negotiating ploy to force a more favorable deal from the Lakers.
Here are several reasons why Miami never had a real shot at Odom:
The ballyhooed fact that Florida doesn't have a state income tax was a
red herring. So what if Odom could have saved about $200-300K per
season? With the Lakers able to offer a signficantly larger salary, the
tax savings would have been mere pocket change.
All of
Dwyane Wade's talk about Odom's "coming back home" to Miami was also
nonsensical. L.O. was born in Queens, N.Y., has played a total of nine
years in Los Angeles and only one in Miami.
Even if the
Heat had inked Odom and Carlos Boozer, the best they could have hoped
for was to finish behind Boston, Cleveland and Orlando. Why would Odom
— or any other player in his right mind — leave a defending
championship ball club to play on the fourth-best team in the Eastern
Conference?
There was some buzz about Odom's lingering
unhappiness coming off the bench for the Lakers and Miami's
guaranteeing him a starting slot. But hey, last June the guy averaged
over 32 minutes per game in the playoffs and was always on the court in
the end game. Winning the gold ring ultimately convinced Odom that
finishing for a winner is better than starting for an also-ran.
L.A.'s pulling its offer from the table last week was just another business-as-usual negotiating ploy.
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