Thursday, April 7, 2022

LBJ D*ckridin Steph

I don't feel like diggin through the archives right now, but I'm sure some time ago on this blog, back when LBJ left the Cavs (the second time) or after the Lakers had their first losing season with him, that I suggested, since he's already on that superteam sh*t, that he should just join the Dubs.  And now, he has more or less floated that idea himself.

Charles Barkley was the first person I ever heard drop that quote 'the NBA is a business' that you see many players saying these days.  Usually when they say stuff like that, what they are actually referring to is the reality that in the NBA, a player can be traded in the blink of an eye.

As much as we may hate our jobs or whatever, most of us don't have to worry about our bosses calling one day and being like 'hey, pack your shit.  We're reassigning you to Oklahoma.'  I mean really, imagine how much of an inconvenience that would be not only to yourself but also your loved ones and established contacts.  And some dudes even get traded like more than once time in a single season.  So it's like, thank goodness there's no NBA team in Alaska.

But Lebron has also showed that the NBA can be just a business from a player perspective also, i.e. one who is powerful enough to pretty much go to any team he wants.  Remember how D-Wade was reportedly offended when LBJ decided to bimz on the Heat, even though they were still the best team in the East.  King James had his own reasons for deciding to go back to his home state of Cleveland.  But since D-Wade and Chris Bosh were his homeys and the city of Miami came to depend on him as their sports superstar, his decision to leave like that felt like a cold, corporate one.  You know what I'm saying?  At least when he left the Cavs (the first time), he had the viable excuse of doing so because the team was garbage, and he actually wanted to win big.

Meanwhile, the Warriors displayed their own "business" acumen in 2016 when, in the name of signing KD, they basically let go of players like Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut, Marresse Speights and others who helped establish the Dubs as the premiere team in the NBA.  So we already know that if an attractive enough offer comes along, Golden State also doesn't give AF.  But I'd hate to think that they'd be dumb enough to trade their current young core for LBJ, regardless of how they may fare in the upcoming Playoffs.

CONCLUSION

LBJ going to Golden State a few years ago, with KD on the roster, was an idea I put forth like fuck it, if you're going to go the superteam route, might as well go big(ger).  But the Splash Brother + Draymond are past their prime, to the point where I've been tempted of late to write a post advocating retiring that core.  Also Lebron probably wouldn't be a good fit anyway, since he insists on playing the point, and the Warriors already have one of the best point-forwards in Draymond "Dino" Green.  

But the good thing about the Warriors is that they're one of the wiser organizations in the NBA.  Nowadays, it's unheard of for a team to transition from one core they drafted or actually developed into another.  And you know, other organizations are probably going to try to poach players like Poole, Kuminga and Payton.  But as it currently stands, the reason the Warriors are my favorite team is because they're the only one that really has an effective older core on top of a promising youth movement.

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