Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by Rich:

ESPNews is reporting, that the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting, that the Bulls and Crawford have a agreed a 7 year contract as prelude to a deal.

someone mentioned that, but they're basically just reporting the oft mentioned (today) article from the sun times this morning. That's the only place it's been mentioned. When I see "FINALLY: Crawford to Knicks" on the ESPN basketball page, then i'll celebrate.

I agree with that, but we'll probably see ten more "It's done" threads until then. ;-)

Rich, this is where we should pull Harrinton out of it and stick Moochie back in

The latest

Bulls finally deal Crawford

By K.C. Johnson
Tribune staff reporter

August 5, 2004, 2:37 PM CDT


After 34 days of negotiations that took several twists and turns, the Knicks and Bulls finally consummated a six-player trade that sends Jamal Crawford to New York on Thursday afternoon.

Crawford signed a seven-year, $55.4 million contract that still needs to clear the NBA league office. But he and Jerome Williams will go to New York in exchange for Dikembe Mutombo, Othella Harrington, Frank Williams and Cezary Trybanski.




"I'm excited," Crawford said by phone from Seattle. "It's been rough because it was supposed to go through a few times. But I'm looking forward to a new challenge."

All of the contracts coming the Bulls' way expire after this season, which will save general manager John Paxson $18 million in salary-cap room over the next four seasons. Paxson insisted throughout the negotiations that financial relief was the only path to get a deal done.

Since Crawford was a restricted free agent, the Bulls held his rights for next season and thus the power in the negotiation process.

That process alternated between a trade looking imminent and stalling over the past five weeks, including a face-to-face meeting between Knicks President Isiah Thomas and Paxson near O'Hare Airport on July 27 that broke down over the inclusion of Moochie Norris in the talks.

It's unclear if Mutombo will remain a Bull. Trybanski is expected to attend training camp but likely will be cut.

Williams, the former University of Illinois standout, averaged 3.9 points and 2.2 assists in 56 games with the Knicks last season, his second. The point guard should battle Chris Duhon and Jannero Pargo for the right to backup Kirk Hinrich.

Harrington is an eight-year veteran who has played with three teams. The 6-foot-9-inch forward owns career averages of 8.1 points and five rebounds.

Crawford averaged 17.3 points last season to lead the Bulls in scoring. But he never completely fit into the culture that Paxson and coach Scott Skiles are trying to create.

When this summer's free-agent market became inflated, Crawford's price tag shot out of the Bulls' budget plans. Paxson then began scouting for ways to parlay Crawford---whom he calls the best basketball player in the deal---into financial flexibility moving forward.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/cs-040805bullstrade,1,4018712.story?coll=cs-bulls-headlines

Well, we don't know the exact details of his deal, but it sure looks like we got him for less than what we originally thought... "only" 8 million/season (actually less).

Though since he'll be making less than what his agent wanted, I'd imagine he'll have an opt-out clause after 3 years, opening the door for renegotiation (and more).

Very exciting times indeed to be a Knick fan. Much like the Marbury trade, any time you can get a starter (borderline AS?!) for a bunch of bench players, it's not a bad deal.

Posted by Andrew:

Posted by technomaster:

Very exciting times indeed to be a Knick fan. Much like the Marbury trade, any time you can get a starter (borderline AS?!) for a bunch of bench players, it's not a bad deal.

Especially when those players you traded away were not going to contribute to the team at all (minus perhaps FWill).

u gotta luv those expiring contracts!

About time...whew. Of course, most of the news services (i.e ESPN) will likely not announce it as "official" until the league office approves it. Let's hope this time it's true.

The Crawford and Dampier rumors have really exposed the weakness of reports of "deals" by news services and the difficulty in maintaining "forum guidlines" regarding posting new topics when their is so much speculation and questions to go around.

YAYYYYYYYYYYY! We all deserved this after waiting so long for a deal to happen . Now Isiah has to use whatever magic he has left to try to get Dampier here.

The deal is done, the league office just has to approve it. Once that happens, you will see the deal being reported on ESPN, etc. Plus, Jamal is coming to NY tonight on a private jet and there is gonna be a press conference tomorrow.

[Edited by - s3231 on 08/05/2004 18:46:20]

CONFIRMATION

http://www.nba.com/knicks/news/trade_040805.html

The link to the bulls site about the trade.

http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/crawford_trade_040805.html

We made the little box on ESPNEWS!!!!!!!