Mike Bibby sobs talks about his hurt feelings over trade rumors in today's Sacramento Bee:
In the story, Bibby also talks about the fans getting on him and how he wants to finish his career in Sacramento. Actually, if you change the names and drop some of the more egregious whining, it's identical to last season's "Peja-is-sad-he-might-be-traded" story. Of course two days later, Peja was a Pacer. Hmm.
The most intriguing thing to come out of this story is that the Kings have discussed Bibby with the Cavaliers, a team with a severe need for a scoring point guard. Bibby would be perfect alongside LeBron James, and I wonder why he wouldn't want to take that step.
What does Cleveland have to offer the Kings? Anderson Varejao, the 24-year-old Brazilian big man - a good energy guy/rebounder who handles the ball decently and is a free agent after this season. There's Scot Pollard's expiring contract, and Aleksander Pavlovic (who would be a restricted free agent in the offseason). But unless the Kings get a third team involved or Cleveland agrees to give up the affordable Drew Gooden, it doesn't look like there's any way to get a deal done.
Back to Bibby: Fans haven't given up on you, we've given up on this whole nucleus. You have had two different sets of personnel to make it work, and you're five games under .500. It's not personal - it's just that fans understand a team with these "stars" - you, Miller, and Artest - will not compete at the highest level, period. I think we've called for Artest's trade as much or more than we've focused on Mike, and he's actually played well this year.