The Sports View

By Sun Advocate

Are we sick of Dwight Manley yet?
Regardless, things didn’t work out so that Donyell Marshall could return to the Jazz this year. One of the bright spots in a comet that is slowly plunging to earth, Marshall will play somewhere else this year.
Matt Harping is a great replacement and a good deal for the money he is being paid ( if you can tell me any athlete is worth what is being paid these days).
Between the messes the last few years (Shandon Anderson leaving to take less money, losing Howard Eisely in a sign and trade deal and now Bryon Russell and Marshall gone, all Manley clients) it’s very hard to tell who is at fault.
I wish the best to Marshall whom I liked and respected. For some his appearance was scary, but he was a class act. But you have to wonder, with Manley’s record, what sane person would have him as an agent. That includes Mr. Malone.
A couple of Jazz players over the years have done well after leaving the team for one reason or another. Most have never achieved near the success in other places they have here. And Manley’s players, as far as I know have failed miserably.
Anderson went to Houston where he thought he would be a star. He went to the bench soon after his arrival and never did contribute much. And he did that for less money than if he would have stayed with the Jazz.
Eisely got away with a good salary in comparison because of the sign and trade deal with Dallas, but then a short time later he was never played much and eventually ended up being traded to the Knicks where he will reside with Anderson this season.
I bet some of the locker room jokes they make will be about being in Utah, but let’s face it, Utah fans are the ones that can laugh at how their careers have turned out now that they are going to be on the worst team in the Atlantic Conference.
Russell has been a stalwart, but his stock has been sinking in the last couple of years and if the Jazz are in a rebuilding mode (isn’t it funny they are “rebuilding” the team around the two best 40 year old players ever to play the game) the Jazz made the right decision.
What a track record Manley has. Now I am no sports agent or even really understand what they do (although I can understand the kind of money they make) but if I were a player I would certainly take a long and hard look at this guy representing me. It seems if he is a players agent, there is no where for that athlete to go but down in both stature and money.
All I know is that I have a bad taste in my mouth from this guy. I can’t imagine how Kevin O’Conner’s and Larry Miller’s palates feel.