JaYnYcE said:
Yea I read it, very well written. Doesn't change his past tho. I'm curious as to why it's ok for people to accept that the best player on the planet formed a border line all star team to win two rings then returns home. He's going to try and bring a championship home, that's a given. But he really doesn't have nearly as much pressure now. He's got his rings and now returns to Cleveland and everyone is happy for him. Maybe it's me, but I don't see how any of this is right. How what he did not only set a precedent of it being ok to take the easy road to get a ring when you're one of the top players in the road, but also jumping back and forth from two different teams is also acceptable. I'm a 80's and 90's fan. Closest thing I can remember was Shaq leaving for LA but nothing like this has ever been done and it's very disturbing that no one else sees anything wrong with this. Maybe it's just me.
You're putting artificial morality and right and wrong into places where it doesn't exist. It's a cold-blooded business and everyone has the right to do what's in their best interest, since things can turn on you on a dime. Just taking Ray's history since I'm familiar with it, but he tried to build something in Milwaukee (signing a long term deal without an agent and not even listening to other offers), but then George Karl wanted to bring his old pet Gary Payton in, so Ray was dealt. Then he tried to build something in Seattle and almost reached contender status, but they didn't pay to keep the coach or some key free agents, hired replacements on the cheap and eventually brought in new ownership who blew everything up and he was dealt again (and now the Sonics don't even exist). If he had it to do over with the advantage of hindsight, would he resign in Milwaukee out of loyalty if, say, the Spurs offered him the chance to play his career with Duncan? Caron might have liked to have spent his career with Wade in Miami, but they had a chance for Shaq and off he went. James might have liked to spend his entire career in Cleveland, but in seven years they failed terribly at finding a Pippen type of co-pilot and there was no help of the horizon. Garnett was probably the guy in the most similar situation of going it alone in Minnesota without much help, and he hung on the loyalty ideal for a while, but when the chance came to join a winner, he ripped up the no-trade clause and signed on.
And 90s basketball wasn't exactly pure idealism either. The Jordan Bulls hated the Bad Boy Pistons with the passion of a 1000 white hot suns, but when they needed a rebounder and had a chance to sign Rodman, guess who became a Bull? Winning trumps all.
Perhaps having followed baseball and watched the big market teams swallow up free agents like candy for decades, a superstar leaving to be on a better team is pretty routine "Dog Bites Man" stuff. The lesson for a franchise is that when you get a transcendent player, you have to develop or acquire another All-Star level piece or two around him or you'll get stuck on a treadmill as a "good, but not great" team and that player is going to get frustrated at the ceiling being too low. The Cavs didn't.
