A day of mixed emotions for me.

The Sonics and Ray Allen agree today to a 5-year, $85 million deal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy we're bringing Ray Ray back. I'm a Sonics fan, after all. But 5 years, $85 million seems an awful lot -- both in years and in dollars -- to commit to a player who'll be 30 years old in two weeks and 35 in the final year of his contract.

It's easy to get excited about this, because we've just re-signed our star player, a move that'll allow us to stay competitive next season and keep the momentum from last year going.

But you can't sweep the other three years of that contract under a rug and pretend that they don't exist. I'm not saying this move will be a mistake on the level of the Knicks and Allan Houston, but the chances are pretty high that we'll feel something to that effect in a few seasons: being stuck with an aging, once-great player who's being paid like a young, in-his-prime player.

Ask Astros fans how they feel about Jeff Bagwell. In two years, ask Suns fans how they feel about Steve Nash.

And in three years, ask me how I feel about Ray Allen.

I read a post somewhere on the Web that tried to justify this deal by saying Ray "will be effective" when he's 35 and in the final year of the contract. And my fist instinctively rammed itself through my computer screen.

I have no doubt in my mind that Ray will be effective when he's 35. He might even be a second or third option. But for $17 million -- which is about what we'll be giving Ray in 2010 -- you'd better be getting a whole hell of a lot more than just an effective player. You'd better be getting one of the 5 or 10 best players in the league, which, correct me if I'm wrong, 35-year-old shooting guards ordinarily aren't (mostly because they're hurt).

(Question: Is Ray Ray even one of the 10 best players in the league right now? Hmm. . . . . Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, Lebron James, TracyMcGrady, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Allen Iverson. . . . . no, he isn't.)

I dunno. I'm happy for now, just because it's cool to see your star player being re-signed. But we absolutely overpaid and gave Ray too many years. We can ignore it for now and be competitive for the next two seasons, but this is something that's going to come back and haunt us, pretty soon, actually.