The NBA is a tough business
Last night was February 7th and for NBA fans this means the trade deadline. This season there have been some crazy moves but everybody’s attention was turned to Anthony Davis and where he’ll go. Because of this subject a big discussion exploded in the league about the rights that the ownership has compared to the rights of the players.
For example, the management of a team can trade a player without even telling him, but if a player announces that he wants to leave an organization he is fined 50.000$. This seems to me like a really bad idea because it gives the players a sense that they are slaves. I agree that some will say: “What is their problem? They are making millions of dollars.”. It is true, but the athletes are still humans and they have feelings, preferences, friends, and families. Look at Nik Stauskas and Wade Baldwin. They were traded on Sunday from Portland Trail Blazers to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Then, on Wednesday, they were sent from Cleveland to Houston, and last night the Rockets traded them to the Indiana Pacers. If this wasn’t enough, the Indiana Pacers waived them so they are currently without any contract. Look how in one week you can go from a team to having no place to play.
A good argument that I heard in the favor of management is that the players know when they sign that they can be traded so it’s all in the contract, meanwhile they request trades they are basically saying to rip off their contract. This is true, legally everything is fine but we are not talking about laws, but about morality. So, I understand, a player is not needed anymore in a team, the GM finds a trade for him but, in my opinion, he should be the first to find out. There have been a lot of cases where the athlete found out that he is going to leave from the media. In my opinion, this looks like running from responsibilities.
Let’s look at another two examples. First one is with Harrison Barnes who was traded a couple of nights ago while he was playing. This has been criticized by many players who said that it is not fair to don’t announce a player and to do this while he is playing. However, some reports said that he was indeed announced before the game but he preferred to play. The next example is with Ivica Zubac. He played his entire career with the Lakers, he was a hard-working player, he fulfilled his childhood dream and last night he was traded to the Clippers. If you think that he isn’t hurt and that money can repair this you are wrong.
In conclusion, to me, it seems really hypocritical to expect loyalty from the players while general managers aren’t expected the same thing. More than that, to fine a player for saying that he doesn’t want to play somewhere is a really extreme mentality.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net