Eric Bledsoe and his stalemate with the Phoenix Suns are at the center of the 2014 NBA Free Agency Rumors & Predictions circus now. The guard they call 'mini LeBron' wants to be paid like LeBron and strained his relationship with his mother team.

According to a report, their stand-off is now close to being irreparable because of Bledsoe's public accusations. From NBC Sports:

"According to league sources, an 'ominous development' has arisen with sides still 'very far apart' in contract negotiations. It has even escalated to the point where the 'relationship is on the express lane to being ruined,' a source with knowledge of the situation informed CSNNW.com.

The Suns offered Bledsoe a four-year, $48 million deal with declining salaries each year, two sources said. That proposal was quickly turned down. Bledsoe's camp is putting a max price tag on the player Suns Head Coach Jeff Hornacek called 'a Top-10 player in the NBA in coming years', another source said."

The Suns never saw that coming. The praise that they heaped on their player suddenly backfiring on them.

"However, the effort by the Suns to undermine Bledsoe's market is what has angered Bledsoe and his reps and led to a standoff in which the relationship is now on the verge of being irreparable, we're told.

Other teams that are/were in the process of dealing with their own restricted free agents (Utah, Detroit, Houston) chose not to use the public scare tactics this summer, another factor that has Bledsoe feeling chilly at the thought of a return to the desert, sources say."

When the Suns publicly announced that they are ready to match any offer made to Eric Bledsoe (something all teams with restricted free agents have done and are allowed to do) that was a statement of their belief in their player.

If it scared off the other teams, it's not the Suns' fault. There are also factors coming into play here-the fact that there's a heap of Unrestricted free agents that are better than Bledsoe (perhaps more than any other year) and the other factor Bledsoe and his agents are not willing to face: maybe he really isn't worth that much.

Bledsoe took everything the wrong way, and the Suns are just right to stand their ground. They made a reasonable offer and had no challengers so why would they outbid themselves? If this results in an impasse, the Suns will lose out but the biggest loser would still be Eric Bledsoe himself.