The NBA has had it up to here with certain star players and is putting basketball’s best on notice that a new day is dawning.
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The breaking point with NBA owners materialized after the antics of LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets grew out of control.
In 2018, Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2nd time and jetted off to Hollywood to create his own personal super-franchise with the Los Angeles Lakers. Under the terms of the deal, LeBron insisted that he be given complete control over the team, including front office staff, coach, and his hand-selected choice of players — effectively making him the de facto President of Basketball Operations for the franchise.
Once he seized control, LeBron designed his dream NBA squad including old friends (literally) including 30+ year-old players he’d always wanted to play alongside. The goal was for LeBron and his buddies to bring LA an automatic championship built almost solely on the strength of LBJ’s known talents.
However, not only did LeBron and the Lakers not win the 2022 NBA championship, but they didn’t even make it to the playoffs. In fact, they were so bad that they never even made it to the play-in tournament (a sort of last-ditch “audition” to get into the playoffs).
Now, thanks to LeBron, the Los Angeles Lakers are without a new championship, without cash, out of draft picks for the foreseeable future, and left with no real assets to improve the team. They’re also reconsidering the bright idea of bringing the LeBron James circus to LA at all. For his part, LeBron is threatening to demand a trade and leave the team unless he continues to get his way.
On July 7, 2019, basketball superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving joined forces and took their talents to the (formerly New Jersey) Brooklyn Nets. Soon thereafter, every ring-chasing NBA veteran and basketball has-been followed Durant and Irving to Brooklyn under the guise that the Nets would become instant champions and rule the league for years to come.
Almost immediately, the Nets gave Durant and Irving carte blanche to run the franchise as they saw fit and they instantly wielded their newfound power.
The 2 stars often bragged they didn’t need a coach at all. Kyrie Irving began showing up to games only when he felt like it. He regularly undercut Coach Steve Nash by holding his own practices separate from the official ones. In fact, he’d frequently demand that players ignore whatever Nash told them and only follow what he ordered.
When the COVID pandemic hit and Irving refused to get the vaccine, it prevented him from playing at-home games due to New York City law. Durant and Irving insisted the team trade away every asset they owned in order to bring in James Harden from the Houston Rockets. Regrettably, Harden quickly tired of Irving and his non-professional antics and demanded a trade, which was immediately granted.
By the time the playoffs began, the Nets were deeply dysfunctional due to the coddling the front office continued to provide to their 2 remaining stars. Too bad the favoritism was all for naught as the Nets were swept out of Round 1 of the playoffs and Durant and Irving were forced to watch their championship dreams die a swift death.
Since then, the Nets have made it known they’ve had it with Kyrie Irving and are preparing to trade him rather than extend his contract and watch another several years go down the drain. Soon thereafter, Kevin Durant abandoned ship and demanded a trade — 3 years to the day he and Irving first joined the Nets and openly expected a string of championship wins (so far, they’ve won zero together).
LeBron James turned the NBA into a “players” league by convincing owners early in his career to not only pay star players with cash but also with power. Players took advantage of that deal over the years by signing huge contracts, forcing teams to trade away assets to build the exact team the player wanted, and by receiving huge paydays. Then, players would fulfill a year or 2 of their contract and then demand a trade to go elsewhere — taking their huge salary with them. The scheme effectively meant players could sign a contract, get a big payday, then threaten to throw a tantrum and become a locker room “cancer” unless their contract was broken or they were traded. It effectively meant contracts were no longer worth the paper they were printed on.
Now, owners have had enough and want their league back.
“There is the beginning of pushback by teams,” said Brian Windhorst on ESPN Daily. “And we are heading to a collective bargaining negotiation that’s going to take place over the summer. There’s been an assumption that the owners are going to push for massive changes.
“We do have [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver on record saying players have to honor their contracts. And we do see two organizations shoving back on their stars, potentially to the detriment of their championship hopes.”
Windhorst went on to allude that LeBron James is pushing for the Lakers to trade for Kyrie Irving and that he might threaten consequences unless a deal is executed.
“Definitely Brooklyn, definitely Utah, and we have the L.A. Lakers on the watch list for pushing back on players guiding so much of what’s going on,” said Windhorst.
Currently, players seek out the highest salary AND the greatest amount of perks and power when selecting a new team. If a certain team is unwilling to give them their way, they already know some other team will. However, if ALL owners were to put their foot down and stop allowing players to run roughshod over their franchises, players would have to adjust.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are both learning this lesson the hard way.
Irving recently threatened to test the waters of free agency — but quickly discovered teams were not at all interested in his services due to his infamous antics.
Durant demanded a trade and expected a huge bidding war that he thought would be completed within days. Instead, teams were simply unwilling to pay the hefty price to obtain Durant’s talents and his relocation options have almost dried up.
Is it time for the superteam concept to die and for multiple superstars to stop attempting to stack the deck by creating lopsided teams designed to steamroll over the rest of the league? Is it time for owners to stop handing star players the keys to their “Lamborghini’s” only to cry in shock when the stars wreck the “car” beyond recognition? And finally, is it time for players to learn the lesson that their word is their bond and to not sign a contract unless they’re prepared and willing to honor it to term?
OK WASSUP! discusses Sports News:
NBA owners are fed up with star players.
Sports Illustrated: In the NBA, the superstars giveth, and the superstars taketh away. They have more power than ever, and flex it more frequently than ever. Which might be good for the cause of player autonomy but not great for team-building. In the last five years alone, nine stars have forced trades, including two who did so twice: Harden and Paul George. Even for a league that has championed player empowerment, this is a jarring, destabilizing trend. “It’s no secret that I’ve expressed my unhappiness with public trade demands,” commissioner Adam Silver said Saturday night. But he said there were no clear solutions to slow the trend. “I don’t want to pretend standing here that I have some secret idea that I know can fix that problem,” Silver said. But it is a problem, especially for team owners and general managers, who can no longer assume roster stability, even if… Read more »