UPDATED: Reaction to Lewis' Contract From Around the Web

Your smile would be just as wide if you just guaranteed yourself $118 million over the next six years.
Photo by Jacob Langston, the Orlando Sentinel

By now, you probably already know that Dwight Howard inked a five-year, $85.9 million extension with the Magic. In case you didn't, the gents at Orlando Magic Blog have it covered.

Moving on, the dollar amount of Rashard Lewis' contract has been a big topic of conversation around the interwebz. Serving suggestion: start with yesterday's Bill Simmons chat, which I CliffNoted here, and then move forward.

Nuss at SuperSonic Soul, who wrote this retrospective post about Rashard a little over a week ago when news of the signing leaked, followed up with this entry defending Lewis' massive contract. Here's a snippet:

And while it’s fashionable to say that the Magic overpaid Lewis, that Lewis is a one-dimensional player who isn’t even that good at the one dimension, that Orlando is going to be handicapped in the future by the combination of Lewis and Howard’s contracts, allow me to say one thing:

Rashard Lewis is not a limp-wristed, shoot-only player whose contract is the worst in the history of professional sports. Rashard Lewis is a solid player who rarely if ever gets hurt, who doesn’t complain about minutes, shots, or anything else, and who is the perfect fit alongside Dwight Howard.

Thanks for taking up the fight, Nuss.

(Via TrueHoop) - Basketbawful's Word of the Day is 'Koncak':

"A derisive term used to describe an exceptionally large free agent contract, usually signed for several years at the maximum allowable salary."

There's much more, and it's hilarious. Plus, Jon Koncak!

(Via FreeDarko) - Tom Ziller of AOL's Fanhouse with a post -- complete with nifty graphic! -- comparing Rashard to Gerald Wallace, who re-signed with the Charlotte Bobcats yesterday for about $9.5 million annually.

It's been a busy summer, but it's only just beginning.

UPDATE: ESPN.com's Chad Ford offers his take on the Lewis signing in this Insider column, which was available for free viewing earlier today, but has since become subscriber-only.

ESPN.com's NBA index page on Friday night. Gotta love the headline.

Essentially, Ford says that the Magic violated five guidelines that teams usually follow when they're signing free-agents. The most interesting part of the piece? One of Ford's sources close to the Magic/Sonics negotiations said the Magic hardly tried to work a cap-clearing sign-and-trade deal; instead, they were content to "get their guy" and move on. If that statement is true, it indicates Otis Smith erred gravely in making this deal. Had we taken on another salary via a sign-and-trade, we would be over the salary cap and able to use the $5.5 million mid-level exception. Because we didn't, we're under the cap, and can only sign free-agents to the veterans' minimum, which is worth substantially less. It's almost as though Otis didn't think the move through at all.

Ford's criticism of the Magic didn't start there. In the July 11th edition of his Daily Dish podcast (available for free on ESPN.com's PodCenter), he and Marc Stein discussed at length the Lewis signing and Darko's departure. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen. Ford and Stein dish dirt on Marc Cornstein and on why the Magic have royally screwed themselves by pissing him off.