Two of the Good Guys: Buehrle and Nocioni

From Rick Morrissey and ChicagoSports.com:

...Something happened this past weekend that doesn't happen often in the world of professional sports. Two athletes in the same town looked around, decided their lives weren't going to be enhanced by more money and chose to stay put.

Presumably independent of one another, the White Sox's Mark Buehrle and the Bulls' Andres Nocioni came to the conclusion that a fellow could live quite comfortably on a huge, multimillion-dollar contract if he were frugal and kept his Maserati collection down to a workable number of, say, 10.

But when Buehrle accepted the above contract and when Nocioni agreed to a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the Bulls, it at least meant that sanity had established a tiny beachhead, that heart mattered and that happiness levels don't necessarily increase as salary numbers spin upward.

Players who view themselves as part of and are willing to sacrifice for the team. Geez, inbetween the quacking duck player of the game, the MVP awards, Gold Gloves, All-Star teams and other awards that honor the individual over the team, you would think that there might be an award recognizing these (albeit incrediably rare) types of players. Oh yeah, that's right there is...fan respect. That, and championships. Buehrle got his (with more to come); Noce, it's your turn.

NBA Contracts

The Chicago Tribune's Sam Smith reveals contract "logic" in the NBA:

Money matters

The absurdity that is NBA contract discussions is playing out with the Clippers now. They offered Chris Kaman an extension worth $50 million over five years, which doesn't seem unfair for their fourth-best starter. But Kaman, using a logic that amazingly worked for Tyson Chandler, said he's better than Chandler and Samuel Dalembert, who signed for $63 million and $64 million, respectively. So if the Bulls and 76ers made mistakes, the Clippers have to also? Pro sports is the only place that argument actually works.