Casey Holdahl works for the Portland Trail Blazers. He used to be the editor of Blazer's Edge, and worked for The Oregonian, too. I've emailed with him here and there, and he's a good dude. And he's obviously a bright bro who moved on up through hard work and talent.
In his Blazers.com blog today, he made a pretty bold accusation. (Via our friend Ben G.) As discussed in the FanShots, Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune reported that the Blazers are interested in moving into the top seven to pick up Kemba Walker, a reported target of the Sacramento Kings. Seems interesting enough. But Holdahl didn't buy it, and after dismissing it via an unnamed Blazers front office employee set about determining who Eggers' source might be.
Here's my hunch. Eggers sets the top seven as the range in which a team would need to be in order to have an opportunity to acquire Walker. The Kings hold the seventh pick. Eggers is close (at least in journalistic terms) with Geoff Petrie, who played for the Trail Blazers and also served as the team's vice president of basketball operations. And what does Petrie do now? Sacramento Kings' president of basketball operations!
[stuff about Eggers' Petrie-to-Portland rumor last week] Given that, I think there are some solid conclusions you draw regarding the location of said "league source."
Here's the problem.
... Well, other than a Blazers employee making a bold accusation like that publicly? That's a matter for the Blazers to deal with, but needless to say, it's unbecoming. I'm no damn shill for Petrie -- I'm not sure there are five members of this community more critical of Petrie than I over the past couple years. But I recognize that for a team employee to publicly accuse another team's GM of tampering in the affairs of the first team? Bold, and unbecoming.
NOTE: In the process of writing this, Holdahl deleted the post. Screenshots here and here. Upon deleting it, Holdahl tweeted that he meant no disrespect to Eggers, who happens to be the senior beat writer in PDX. No similar sentiment expressed to Petrie.
Here's the problem I won't leave to the Blazers: it makes no f--king sense.
The rumor in the Tribune is No. 7 and an unnamed player for the Blazers' No. 21 pick and Andre Miller. Miller is a nice player, a true facilitator. He's also 97 years old. The Kings are looking for a veteran or two, sure. Basketball veterans. Not Vietnam War veterans. Not Korean conflict veterans. Miller makes very little sense for the Kings, unless they are drafting a very young Miller-y point guard for Miller to groom, like say Kemba Walker (or Brandon Knight). Which they can't do if they trade No. 7.
If Petrie were leaking fake rumors to a Portland-based writer, I think he'd be intelligent enough to make them rumors that could actually do him some good. Like No. 7 for Nicolas Batum and No. 21. Or No. 7 for Brandon Roy and $1 billion. Not No. 7 for No. 21 and Walt Whitman's fishing buddy.
This is either an egregious affront to Petrie's intelligence, or Petrie is actually that worst GM this side of Kahn. What do y'all think?
UPDATE: Casey quickly tweeted that he meant no disrespect to Petrie, either.