Anderson Varejao spoke with Chad Ford at ESPN for the first time (the article is linked here) and his comments are very telling! Telling in that Danny Ferry is a HORRIBLE GM, like I’ve been saying all season! Check out this clip from Chad’s article, then read the whole thing. It’s great.
On each side, the frustration level has been rising the past few weeks, as Varejao is left in limbo in Brazil, and as the Cavs have struggled coming out of the gate in training camp and the regular season.
In October, Ferry made a surprise visit to see Varejao at his parents’ home in Brazil in an attempt to convince him to sign.
The move backfired. Ferry showed up without telling Fegan, and working around an agent is a no-no in the NBA. While GMs are allowed to talk with players without an agent present, it is customary that all contract talk goes through an agent.
“I was shocked,” Varejao said. “He showed up and wanted me to sign a contract. I told him he’s got to talk to my agent. He didn’t even up his offer. I guess he thought if he just showed up, I would just sign whatever he gave me.”
Ferry walked away with no deal and with an angry free agent on his hands.
He defends his decision to appeal directly to Varejao.
“From the start of free agency, we told Anderson and his agent that the ability to communicate with him directly was going to be very important to the process,” Ferry said. “The trip was done because our communication with Anderson was no longer available to us.”
Since that incident, there hasn’t been much trust or movement on either side.
Personally, I don’t think Varejao is worth anything near $10 million per year, so I would side with Ferry on that he’s closer to a $6 million per year player, but this demontrates that Ferry simply does not understand how to negotiate or deal with people on the level that a NBA GM needs too. In fact, according to Anderson’s own comments here, the reason he is demanding so much money is because of the fact that Ferry gave players like Larry Hughes, Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall (Varejao did not name them specifically) a ton of money, when they are far less valuable for this team!
Well Danny, it’s the mess you’ve created! Good luck cleaning it up. Meanwhile, poor LeBron is doing everything humanly possible to keep your franchise’s head above water!
Just Give Me The Stats!! 
Ferry screwed us when he played for us in the 90’s and he’s screwing us now.
ferry blows he gets possibly one of the best players ever and he takes it for granted and signs crap for free agents. Larry, damon, donyell, Z are worth half of what they got. He better sign someone good or Lebron will leave and people will start to kill one another. (Danny Ferry will be #1 on the hit list).