Legends who were done dirty

[HotelVitale]

Wizards did MJ dirty.

How so?

It's Gil... But I believe this was the lowdown ]

Might be something to this story but what more could Gilbert Arenas do to make clear that he can't say anything reliably. Dude couldn't tell you how he got his morning paper from his driveway without inventing some story about a crackhead cop blowing the town mayor. He's just an incorrigible chaos/drama-creating embellisher.

[HMFFL]

Wade with the Heat? Not sure what the Heat offer was, but he got $47 mil/2 years from Bulls.
Would have been nice to see him only wear a Heat jersey.
Wikipedia says "Initially, the Heat offered him a two-year, $20 million contract,[111] before increasing it to a two-year, $40 million offer, both of which Wade felt were unacceptable."

He's gone 1.5 seasons and then came back.

Heat offered 2yrs, $20m and then offered 2yrs, $40m.

[puja21]

You know I’d say re-signing Blake Griffin then trading him was a dick move. Could have at least facilitated a sign and trade.

Definitely. Especially after they did a fake jersey retirement ceremony as part of his pitch to re-sign there

I forgot about all of that. What a bunch of douche knuckles.

People bring this up a lot (and yes the retire a clipper stuff was nonsense)

BUT the signing and trade were more than 6 mos apart

He was traded mid season when the clippers were in the 9 spot and 1 game over .500

The only players who broke 2000 mins were Austin Rivers, Lou Will & DJ

[maverick_41]

Luka.
They even started an unexcusable PR campaign against him immediately.

But at least he wasn't traded to the Pistons like Blake. The Lakers seems to treat their best players the right way and can arrange a good supporting cast around him.

[HMFFL]

Dominique Wilkins traded to Clippers for Danny Manning

Yes!
Hawks had a 36-16 record and ranked first in the East at the time. The new ownership has him on the payroll and gave him a statue.

[SkyBill40]

Suns with Goran Dragic.

[ropjhk]

Wizards did MJ dirty.

How so?

It's Gil... But I believe this was the lowdown

Watch on YouTube

MJ was a part owner before returning to the court to play for the Wizards. He had to give up his ownership stake in order to play again. MJ expected to return to being a part owner after playing for the Wizards. After retiring the organization didn't want him back and so they denied MJ ownership. MJ felt that he was used by the Wizards to prop up ticket sales for 2 years and then discarded.

Whether MJ deserved his fate and whether the Wizards made the right choice is another discussion. This thread asks for examples of legends being done dirty and I think this story qualifies and deserves to be near the top of the list.

[bkkrh]

For the Knicks definitely the way Ewing was treated. It would be one thing if they didn´t come to an agreement on a contract extension. It´s another thing to not even offer one and secretly shop him around. Then there would have been the chance to sign him a year later and have him play his final seasons on the Knicks, but well.

Now the best part, the guy was an assistant coach in the league for 15 seasons on 4 different NBA teams, then a college head coach for 6 seasons, but somehow it´s not possible to get him on the Knicks coaching staff at any point in over 20 years?

An even worse moment. Having Charles Oakley kicked out and arrested of MSG for cursing out Dolan.

[puja21]

Dominique Wilkins traded to Clippers for Danny Manning

Yes!
Hawks had a 36-16 record and ranked first in the East at the time. The new ownership has him on the payroll and gave him a statue.

And this came after his insane recovery from the torn achilles...

Nique tore his achilles at the same age as Dame, but around the All Star break rather than during playoffs.

He came back the very next season (so he missed less than 40 games) and had arguably his best season as a pro; finished 2nd to MJ in the scoring title, was top-5 in MVP voting, All NBA of course, and played in 71 games.

Timeline was nuts... 280 days off and immediately dominant:
1) Tore his achilles 15 mins into a 1 point home win over Philly Jan 28 1992
2) Played 39 mins vs the Knicks opening night, Nov 6 1992 ... and scored 30 pts on 50% shooting

Wilkins also later had another fantastic all star season at age 34 (the year they traded him) where he made all NBA & finished 4th in scoring.
He averaged 29 and 7 for the Clippers after the trade that year.

(Hawks did win 50+ games each of the next 3 seasons and get out of the 1st round twice without Wilkins though, so probably best move for the franchise.)