anyone got news on this topic?? reply ASAP

The two weeks is not up but that has never stopped teams before and as alluded to in another thread, player's can get permission to talk to other teams before the expiration of the two week period.

I can confirm he has signed with another team.

I would not be suprised JVG has money gallore and although I am sad to see Dusty go if it is true I would understand his decision.

Today is another sad day in the history of the 36ers. Another day to ponder over in the future and wished things hadn't turned out that way. Some people will never learn.

The deal he will get in Brisbane gives him more stability, not just more cash. It's easy to tease him about money, but I don't blame him for taking this opportunity at all.

Anon, you can't be serious. Dusty is an import pro-ball player with a limited career span and a future to try and provide for.

When you turn what he was earning at the Sixers back into $US, he aint exactly earning the money to put his kids through college. Not every import wants to do a Mark Davis and stay here forever.

Best of luck Dusty, you have been very good for us here and will undoubtedly tear us a new one when you come back here next year... I just hope it is not one of your 44 point specials!

Greedy in the extreme??? You have got to be joking!!!

The guy is a professional basketball player with a limited timeframe where he can use his skills to earn an income. He has held out for as long as he can and given the Sixers plenty of time to come to the party. He has obviously got a great deal on the table and has decided to take it so good luck to him!

Annon #72433

I agree in some respect with what you say. It seems the only passionate people are the fans. The players have a different agenda and that is to make as much money in as little time. You have to also remember though, that this sort of career has a short life span. A player puts in most of his life in intensive training to reach that level and then if they are lucky enough to get contracts, it only lasts for 10-15 years of their life. They have to try and make it worthwhile for the years of work they put into it to get themselves at that level.

In Dusty's case, he comes from USA where top basketballers are paid huge sums of money. It would have been a shock to the system to see how financially unrewarding it was when he arrived in Australia. I would say his expectations would have suffered a blow. Also as a non resident of Australia, a large portion of his money goes into tax. The you have the conversion rate to American dollars which further reduces its value. I honestly think he is only doing it to fulfil a love of the sport and to travel around. As far as money goes, it would be just as financially viable to get an office job back home.

Ec you are now talking shit, how much do you think he would earn in a office job?
he would be earning much more money playing ball and he would only have to be half intelegent to pick up a reasonable job when he returns home.

Having said this I dont blame him for chasing $$$ and maybe he has simply had enough playing for Adelaide when the team and it's structure does not change from year to year.

EC, Dusty knew before he left the US what the wage structer is like in the NBL as well as what $$$ they are expected to learn.

No suprises came his way, conversion rates have stayed relatively the same and you have always had to FLY home to the U.S if you wanted to. Even if his blind drunk great aunt was his manager, he would have known what to expect.
..afterall Dusty sure knows how to use the internet!! dont you Dusty?

understood and respected

Plus Dusty has goals of being in business after bball so what better situation than in Brisbane.

Play ball, get paid and learn business apprentice style from a BRW top 200.

Justin what does it have to do with you, are you his Manager and if you are is it profesional to comment on this forum?

I dont think people will care so long as the 36ers replace him with a quality big import.

That wont be eazy

I guess he can now afford to stop selling merch on his website ;)

Good luck dusty, I hope we can get a replacement as consistent as you (and I hope we kick your arse next time we play you).

I think majority of people who play basketball (or any sport for that fact!) or understand the game on a professional level, understands why Dusty is leaving and respects and supports that completely. Don't let one idiot who has to remain anonymous (even though i'm sure he's a nobody!) fire people up to show their support for the guy. Dusty has been a great ambassador to the sixers and the sport of Basketball especially in Adelaide. The one positive thing is, he gets to stay in Australia for a bit longer and i'm sure he'll love Brisbane.
Good luck Dusty for season 2007!

Should i cancel my order?!!!

"limited addition"!?

thanks for the time in adelaide dusty you will be greatly missed best of luck up at brisbane and lookforward to seeing you in adelaide again allbeit as a opponent

Cheers

why did the sixers cut his pay even more? could they get any more stupid? far out, now we lost our most consistent player...top work

Not saying it was a good decision as Dusty was arguably the best PF in the league and a top guy as well. However, in answer to bballer's question, the way I see it there are two reasons why the 36ers offered Dusty a pathetic deal.

The first and main reason is that they wanted him to leave to free up the cap room and import spot.

The second reason is that if Dusty were to accept their pathetic offer then they would still have cap room to get a serviceable Australian centre.

Again, I'm not saying it was a good decision. I guess time will tell.

However, I bet most would be bitching had the 36ers paid Rychart the max and then wondered why we didn't recruit anyone new to replace Rees.

We didn't get it done this year and bringing back the exact same team next season wouldn't have got it done next year in my opinion.

There's no doubt a change was needed to the team but it wasn't Rychart that had to go. His departure does nothing to improve the team even if a half decent centre is recruited. I say half decent because the money will dictate that. What needed to happen was to accept the situation for another year until other players came out of contract. I would have replaced Rees with a cheap centre for a year until Cooper came out of contract. Accept the fact that for another year not much improvement was going to occur. Then used both salaries to get one decent centre and in the meantime train Oscar in that role as well (assuming he would accept that). If everything else failed in other areas of the team, the one consistent factor was always going to be Dusty. That consistency has now been lost.

Which cheap centre instead of Rees EC?

You can add Dodman or Bungey(insert any other minimum wage big man) instead of Rees and we are exactly the same team.

Basically one of either Dusty, Jacob or Oscar had to go.

Jacob and Oscar are 5 point players, don't command an import spot and are cheaper than Dusty.

The team was no doubt in a tough position in choosing between Jacob and Dusty.

The problem with choosing Dusty over Jacob is that the team would HAVE to sign either Hinder or Melmeth to be better. If we missed out on both of them there would be no major Aussie free agent that could replace Jacob and make us a better team.

Now they are in a position of targeting Hinder or Melmeth and if they miss out on both have the opportunity of signing an import centre.

I imagine there would be some damn talented 6'9" to 6'10" seniors in the NCAA not tall enough to play centre in the NBA but big enough to play centre comfortably in the NBL.

In the past import NBL centres were hard to come by but recently there have been some good ones such as Burgess, Horvath, Williams and Roberts.

Pressure will be on Smyth big time to find a replacement capable of Dusty style numbers.

Stephon, if you read my post correctly, you would have seen that I was talking about the following season 2007/2008, not this coming one. I openly admitted that the team would have to settle with being unsuccessful for another season before major changes should have been made.

yeah i would try and find another young guy out of college who's nba dreams were crushed, it may not work but it may work ie willie. Then get a local backup and look for another point.

Charlie #72458
I maybe wrong here, but I believe the year he came to Australia to play for the Victorian Giants, the salary cap was just over $1m. It dropped to just over $700K the next year. While it still didn't compare to the salaries in the US, it made a big difference on Australian standards.

ec, youre so in love with dusty that it clouds your judgement!!

I hope you got your order in for your Bobby Bear Mixmasterwipe as its now gone from the Bullets site

I think we will struggle next year regardless of who the 5 is because now er will be an even smaller frontcourt

Still, no-one has posted "those" pics ..... ;-)