Bornstellar wrote:shi-woo wrote:Bornstellar wrote:
This is only the end of the discussion if you don't actually look at context or want to present a disingenuous argument
Magic/Kareem - both top 50 players
Larry/McHale - both top 50 players
Jordan/Pippen - both top 50 players
Kobe/Shaq - both top 50 players
Robinson/Duncan - both top 50 players
Wade/Shaq - both top 50 players
Kobe/Gasol - both top 50 players
Why is is that LeBron is the only player who gets crucified for playing with other top tier talent? Wade was a shell of himself by 2013 and Bosh was never a top 10 player to begin with
Because all of those guys became team mates through organic means, not by collusion and intentional team building to break the competative balance of the league?
None of those guys are viewed as mercenaries for hire. Journeyman used to be a term used for borderline scrubs and roleplayers, now it's used for arguable the best player in the game.
Teams had to give stuff up to get Shaq to MIA. Gasol to LA. KG to BOS. Teams had to draft and make great trades to for nucleus's like Bird/McHale and Jordan/Pippen.
They didn't sit down and form those teams over a class of wine and dinner 3 years before hand
And why do you think a player wanting to dictate his own future is somehow bad but a GM doing the same thing is good? Really trying to understand the real thinking behind this. Again, why is a player taking his destiny in his own hands bad but you all love when a GM does it?
Because it undercuts the entire integrity of the league. People keep trying to make this a "keeping the black man down" and "shut up and dribble" argument (Not you, just the overall conversation on these forums devolves into those two camps when talking about The Decision), when it's the furthest thing from it. If LeBron had just upped and left for MIA literally no one would have cared outside of CLE fans. The fact that he and Wade had Riley clear cap knowing he and Bosh were coming years ahead of time, is something that no other team could have had the chance to do.
Likewise, when you see what that has evolved into, it's disgusting. Paul George, Carmelo, Kawhii, Anthony Davis, Kyrie, James Harden all left their teams in pretty poor taste.
The people who have problem with this type of team building are fans of competative, balanced basketball. We don't always get that because of GM's and injuries, but the whole idea of a salary cap, max contracts, cut-sign restrictions, trade restrictions, ect ect is to preserve the idea of that competative balance. This is why it's viewed as okay when GMs do it, because they are working within those boundaries. What super teams do is make all of that completely pointless and just another handicap for 25 teams in the league. It destroys the integrity of the league, and makes the idea of rooting for teams instead of players pointless (thus the entire idea of a "league" pointless). It makes the idea of the league being 30 teams fighting it out to see who is the best completely non-existent. Winning and losing no longer matters. Rivalries no longer matter. Adversity no longer matters. Competition no longer matters (See 2017 and 2018)
LeBron can be the best player in the league, but having to watch him literally walk to the finals every year because his biggest competition is Lance Stevenson, Isaiah Thomas and Joakim Noah isn't exactly my idea of a good time. Even the dominant teams of past decades had to go against some really tough competition. The NBA over the past 10 years has just been artificial and any drama was manufactured. The only reason the finals has been interesting in that time period too has been 1.) When players got injured (2019, 2015) or when players choked (2011).
