The CBA and salary cap situation has never been like this before. Also, those aforementioned players are considered part of the previous generation of players who played in the shadow of Jordan. The players today? Different mentality. None of them want to go out like Barkley without a chip. None of them want to be pimped like Pippen was who never got the bread he deserved until he left Chicago. The 2016 NBA means you can get a ring and get paid. How could you blame anyone for wanting both?
Lebron set the mold. The Cavs won't surround me with talent? I'm out. I'm getting two rings. He uses the terms of the CBA and goes back to the Cavs. Believes in himself and signs a contract that gives him all the leverage. And then goes out and gets a ring, while getting paid. If you're Durant, you'd be insane not to follow a similar path. Instead of criticizing him, point a finger at OKC.
A small market team has Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka (when he was good). They make it to the Finals. They lose. Because they DON'T want to pay the luxury tax, they trade their 3rd best player for a bag of beans the next fucking season. Knowing the window of opportunity to win a ring is typically short, they valued money over winning. Fuck them. Their loss. I don't feel sorry for them at all. They had their shot. They had different priorities.
Tell me, what was so different between the CBA in 2004, and say ... 2007 when Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen joined up, and Garnett was bringing in 23 mil that year, and Ray and Pierce were both making over 15m per year? IF someone wanted to do it back then, they could have.
Lastly, I think it is EXTREMELY disingenuous to suggest that the only options available to superstar is to play on a team with minimal talent, and play with MULTIPLE All-Stars.
Durant had THREE CHANCES TO CLOSE OUT GS AND FAILED TO! Explain to ME, how in the FUCK is that OKC'S FAULT? Then you JOIN THE TEAM THAT PUT YOU OUT THE VERY NEXT SEASON?
Are you seriously condoning this, bro? Leaving isn't a problem, but the team that just beat you?? Are you seriously telling me, the competitor in you would rather play with the team that took your cookies, than come back and beat them, if not with OKC, another squad?
No one has EVER said players don't need help. But, there is a difference between help and stacking the deck so much in your favor that you're virtually guaranteed to win. Then we want to pat these people on the back for the chips they won like that wasn't the most obvious outcome when they teamed up. "OH, LEBRON HAS BEEN TO SIX STRAIGHT FINALS. THAT HASN'T BEEN DONE SINCE BLAH, BLAH..."
....it hasn't been done since ANOTHER super-star had a stacked deck.
I'm to the point that if someone played with multiple no. 1 options, and they are also a no. 1 option, their rings don't mean the same. Come the fuck on. Any superstar team up with a couple of All-Stars and look like great champions. That shit is like sending an NBA team back to college and acting genuinely surprised that they NBA team is winning or competing in the Finals every year.
But, once again, I get it. Some of you aren't competitors. Call it what the fuck it is. You play games and set the difficulty on beginner, and beat your chest when you win. Cool.
well hey if i would have known all of that was going to happen then maybe i would have picked against them also
