Big Ben ponders retirement

Big Ben, not in it for the money? If it wasn’t about the money, you’d be retiring in Detroit. You have every right to want to get paid, but don’t say it’s not about the money.

So, for us Pistons fans, please, give it one more year. F up that Cavalier cap space once more for the D.

I no longer think it was about the money. I think he felt marginalized under Flip’s system and was intrigued by a team willing to make him the centerpiece and hail him as “the missing piece.” Hindsight being 20/20, it didn’t work out.

There was certainly no love between Flip and Ben.

I would love to see Ben back with Detroit, after having Cleveland buy him out of his contract, for the veterans minimum, or even MLE. Of course, this is assuming that Larry Brown and Chauncey Billups come back as well ;-)

I think the Flip situation helped him make a decision, but I didn’t believe then nor do I now that it was not about the money. I may be remembering it wrong (correct me if it is so) but didn’t reports say he wanted the Pistons to match up and that he felt something along the lines of insulted when they didn’t.

Any professional athlete that says “It’s not about the money” is lying. Why can’t they either not bring up money or if they do, state that its in fact a job and that making money is part of it.

@ Kriz: I believe your memory is correct. The pistons were offering I believe a bit less money but more importantly (from what I remember) a year shorter on the contract.

Hell, after getting paid ~50+M the last 4 years, of course you can say it’s not about money. Of course, we’ll see “how much it ain’t about money” when we start talking buyout.

But you look at the Cavs, Ben retires. Andy V. bails on a new contract and Big Z looked like he was 40 against Orlando. O course, Dwight had something to do with that. If I’m the Cavs, I buy out Ben and go over the cap and sign Gortat. Who better to D up on Howard?

I no longer think it was about the money. I think he felt marginalized under Flip’s system and was intrigued by a team willing to make him the centerpiece and hail him as "the missing piece." Hindsight being 20/20, it didn’t work out.

I don’t know, Matt. I usually agree with you, but I don’t think I can on this one.

To say that Ben’s departure to the Bulls was only about money seems to overstate the case.

But to say that the primary motivating factor was his intrigue with another system seems to overstate the case in the opposite direction.

I think both were probably in play, but I have very little doubt that had Joe D matched the offer, Big Ben would have re-signed.

It’s all hypothetical, but that’s what I think.

And Matt, let’s not forget that Ben left Detroit for an arch rival in the same division. I think if he had any sense of loyalty to the Pistons, he wouldn’t have done so. Other teams wanted him as well…

@ brgulker: Agreed. Other teams wanted him, but Chicago was paying the most. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Rival or not, money talks and . . .

At that point, and every point in between, chicago has not come close to making a run. He was the man in Det. Just the D-Man in Det. And that’s what he would have been in Chicago.

I really think he thought that as offer(s) were made he felt that a true “market value” was being established and used that to go to Joe and say “this is my value” so you should pay me this. A very simplistic way to look at it. Any NBA team will over pay for the “right” piece and he was that piece for Chicago. Flip could have called a play for him every once in a while, but his departure I think was before the Hack-A-Shaq foul rule went into effect also, which means he was useless at the end of the game from an offensive point of view which really marginalized him on the D end. And that’s where he made his bread-n-butter.

I also think this has alot to do with him not playing much (that I can recall from the series). Smith, Big Z and Andy were all ahead of him on the bench. I give him props if he doesn’t want to sit on the bench and collect a check. But I also think this has to do with the “expiring contract” offered up for trade to some club that isn’t even sniffing the playoffs and wants to cut costs after 2010. It’s already being mentioned as the draft nears.