Insanely Hot Night Heat, TV Deals Galore, And Gilbert Arenas is a Saint (OK, Not Really)
Happy Fourth of July! Hopefully, I’ll actually get to see some fireworks this year (and no, not of the figurative type!)
- Temperature-wise, it hasn’t been as hot lately as it was a few weeks back, when we were regularly getting temps in the mid-100s during the day, and mid-80s at night. For some reason, though, I’ve been having a hell of a time getting any sleep!
It almost feels like my room is a good ten degrees warmer this week than it has been in weeks past. Case in point: I’ve had no choice but to leave my Honeywell tower fan on all night. Even with the fan on all night, I usually wake up with my pillow covered in sweat.
(Apologies to anyone that got grossed out by that image.)
I can’t wait for October.
(As far as the title is concerned…hot heat? As opposed to cold heat, right? See what the heat does to me? :P)
- The more my wallet tightens up, the more frequently I find incredible TV deals, no thanks to SlickDeals.
Case in point: a 46″ Samsung 1080P LCD HDTV for $1299? An Element 42″ 720p LCD HDTV for $699? An Envision/AOC 42″ 720p LCD HDTV for $849? Not to mention, according to SlickDeals, J&R through Amazon had a 37″ Sharp for $699!
I’d love to upgrade from my 32″ Sceptre Komodo, but the little fact that I’m broke is keeping me from doing so :P. I fear, though, that the closer we get to football season, the bigger the urge will be for me to upgrade.
I think I should put my wallet in a giant block of ice.
- I end today’s blog entry with quite possibly the most selfless act in sports history. Wizards G Gilbert Arenas, figuring out that $127 million was a tad too much money for his services, happily took a pay cut…of $16 million, meaning he’ll get a paltry $111 million over six years.
Something tells me that Arenas was happy for the dollar figure because it’s palindromic, or something like that. In that case, why didn’t he ask for $111,111,111.11?
I love this quote:
“What can I do for my family with $127 million that I can’t do with $111 million?” he told The Washington Post.
How noble. Maybe those ridiculously highly-paid CEOs can take a cue from this guy.
Talking about why he offered a hometown discount, Arenas said:
“I’m basically giving back $16 million,” Arenas told the Washington Times. “This is in line with what I’ve been saying the whole time. You see players take max deals and they financially bind their teams. I don’t wanna be one of those players and three years down the road your team is strapped and can’t do anything about it.”
While it’s true that Arenas is giving the team a $16 million “discount,” he’s not exactly freeing the Wizards from the binds of the salary cap. Here is the Wizards’ current cap situation; factor in Antawn Jamison’s $12.5 million per year contract (assuming he gets $12.5 million next year), and the Wizards are already at ~ $54 million in contracts.
Now, the 2008-09 salary cap figure hasn’t been released yet, but let’s assume it is ~ $57 million (it was ~ $55 million last year). If Arenas’ new deal starts at $12 million per year, the combined contracts of Jamison and Arenas already put the Wiz way over the salary cap. So how does this hometown discount help the Wiz in signing another free agent?
About the only thing I could think of is the fact that the discount might lower the Wizards’ luxury tax payments, if they happen to go over the tax threshold (if they use their mid-level exception this year, it appears that they will surely go over the tax threshold). So in a nutshell, Arenas is, in the most basic sense, saving the team a bit of money. His contract, though, certainly appears to keep them from improving the team much.
(Now, I don’t pretend to be a cap-ologist, and everything I said above could be completely wrong. If I am so, I would appreciate any corrections!)