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Look, Clippers management gave Blake Griffin a fake jersey retirement ("Clipper for life!") in their pitch to re-sign him then traded him half a season later. What a joke. When the team does it, "that's business" but if a player pulls the strings he's a disloyal heel. I don't fully buy that.
The last few years have been weird, mostly the cap variations and the way good teams have gotten really smart with the cap (and hell, the cap itself) have all changed. Everything is different.
Way back when the league wasn't diluted and great teams like the Celtics won multiple championships with multiple HoF'ers in their prime, this type of thing was a non-issue. It's like wondering why a 3,000 year old Bible doesn't talk about evolution.
Jordan never had to leave, the Bulls were great and he was great and they won. But Pippen left. Barkley pushed his way out of Philly to join a better team and future HoFers. Some of this isn't new.
Lebron self-managing his career is at a new level, but arguably GM Lebron has been Player Lebron's greatest enemy.
The Warriors are just unique. Brilliant roster management and well timed cap spikes. I don't know if anybody has ever had the opportunity to do what Durant did. How sure are we that none of the old farts would have done this if they could have? I'm not sure at all. These guys want rings. Plenty of guys were more than happy to join the Lakers and win big. Kareem never stayed in Wisconsin.
The sense of the NBA brotherhood is at a new level. These guys finally realized they're all on the same team and the real enemy is the guy with the chequebook who profits off you, your knees, your back, your ankles - and every dollar he successfully negotiates you down is a dollar that goes straight out of your pocket and into his. Old athletes whose bodies are destroyed at 50 and who never did make that much money - those owners who underpaid them and smoked cigars watching those guys wreck their knees wearing Chuck Taylors on hardwood, those owners always were and still are loaded, but the players never were. Professional athletes finally realized the real "us vs them" of their careers isn't about the guys in the other jerseys, it's about the guys in the suits. Pro sports have been trending in that direction for decades.
End rant.
The last few years have been weird, mostly the cap variations and the way good teams have gotten really smart with the cap (and hell, the cap itself) have all changed. Everything is different.
Way back when the league wasn't diluted and great teams like the Celtics won multiple championships with multiple HoF'ers in their prime, this type of thing was a non-issue. It's like wondering why a 3,000 year old Bible doesn't talk about evolution.
Jordan never had to leave, the Bulls were great and he was great and they won. But Pippen left. Barkley pushed his way out of Philly to join a better team and future HoFers. Some of this isn't new.
Lebron self-managing his career is at a new level, but arguably GM Lebron has been Player Lebron's greatest enemy.
The Warriors are just unique. Brilliant roster management and well timed cap spikes. I don't know if anybody has ever had the opportunity to do what Durant did. How sure are we that none of the old farts would have done this if they could have? I'm not sure at all. These guys want rings. Plenty of guys were more than happy to join the Lakers and win big. Kareem never stayed in Wisconsin.
The sense of the NBA brotherhood is at a new level. These guys finally realized they're all on the same team and the real enemy is the guy with the chequebook who profits off you, your knees, your back, your ankles - and every dollar he successfully negotiates you down is a dollar that goes straight out of your pocket and into his. Old athletes whose bodies are destroyed at 50 and who never did make that much money - those owners who underpaid them and smoked cigars watching those guys wreck their knees wearing Chuck Taylors on hardwood, those owners always were and still are loaded, but the players never were. Professional athletes finally realized the real "us vs them" of their careers isn't about the guys in the other jerseys, it's about the guys in the suits. Pro sports have been trending in that direction for decades.
End rant.
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