Laker Fans Not Quaking on Falk Line

In the Times last Saturday, David Falk complains that the Lakers were primarily concerned with making trades that fit within the “financial parameters” of the management. Is that not the pot calling the kettle black? When has Falk ever allowed a player to sign when the terms weren’t within their own “financial parameters”?

As for his saying the team can’t win “if the bottom line is the primary consideration,” what team has ever won that paid one of Falk’s clients (other than Jordan) a big contract? Yet many teams are buried from overpaid, cap-destroying contracts paid to Falk players who can’t even be traded due to that value of the contract. Look at Juwan Howard, Kerry Kittles and Antoine Walker.

I believe this year the league woke up. Falk promised Rice and Mo Taylor they’d get the max, $14 million. They weren’t worth it, and Falk’s “extortion” methods aren’t working anymore.

ROD CLARIDA, Brea

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Reading J.A. Adande’s puzzling column, you’d think the Lakers had finished last in their division and Glen Rice had been reduced to having to work for a living. The Lakers win the NBA championship and Rice signs a four-year, $36-million deal with a new team, yet Adande manages to sound almost as sourpuss as David Falk in questioning the Lakers commitment to winning and criticizing the team for not having taken better care of his client.

A word of friendly advice to J.A.: If you want to maintain loyal readers, don’t expect them to view the future of the league through the jaundiced eyes of a sports agent.

DAVID MACARAY, Rowland Heights

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David Falk blasts the Lakers for putting economics ahead of winning and then in the same breath he has the nerve to claim that the Lakers “did a textbook job in how not to maintain the star value of a player.” Falk alleges that Rice’s appeal declined in part because Coach Phil Jackson sat Rice out for long stretches of crucial games. The Lakers won most of those crucial games and went on to win the championship, so it seems Jackson knew what he was doing and was very focused on winning with no thought of “star value” economics.

Mr. Falk, you’re not suggesting that the Lakers should have been more concerned about your client’s “star value” than on winning a championship, are you?

TIM BOETTCHER, Topanga

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Falk, you’re just bitter because you had a career low of a summer. See you at the parade in June.

MARIO RAEZ, Upland