Its just business.
This is a sentiment echoed endlessly all over the NBA and NFL every year as players are traded, cut, and leave in free agency. And it is business, to be sure. The only way to win is to build the best roster of players that you can. The only way to keep winning is to trade and negotiate players with skill to keep your team relevant as long as possible, and to squeeze as much production as you can out of your million dollar payroll. The life of a general manager in professional sports is one of endless analysis, endless pushing to get better and stay better, and cold, calculating decisions. If you let emotion dictate how you run your team, you can rest assured; you won’t be running it very long.
But to say it is just business is a bit of a half-truth. Anyone who has ever had to change jobs and leave town or been transferred to another branch can tell you, far more than your professional life is affected. Everything, where you eat, where you sleep, whom you hang out with changes. It is almost always difficult.
Earlier this season, right before the trade deadline, Boston GM Danny Ainge worked out a deal with Oklahoma’s Sam Presti that sent life-long Celtic Kendrick Perkins in a southern direction. The business thinking behind this was mostly solid. The Celtic’s cap space was tapped. Perk’s contract was running out, and the team was scared they would lose him in free agency for nothing. This way, it wasn’t a total loss.
The reality was something quite different. If you catch the episode of “The Association” where the trade goes down, I recommend you have a box of Kleenex ready. I almost needed some, and I’m not even a Celtics fan.
Perkins had played his entire career in Boston at this point. He had won one title, been to two Finals. His home, his life, was in Boston. The Celtics, point guard Rajon Rondo in particular, were some of his best friends in the world. Kendrick said himself he looked at them like brothers, not teammates. Doc Rivers said that his and Perk’s relationship was much closer to that of father-son than coach-player. You could tell by Rondo’s play after the trade that something was definitely bothering him. On the show mentioned above, you see Perkins, a giant man known for scowling people out of the paint, cry over the news.
In the sense of fairness, I should point out that Ken was not exactly traded to some crazy basketball version of Siberian jail, or worse, the Timberwolves. The Oklahoma City Thunder is a team on the rise. If I were a betting man, I would put a paycheck on them representing the Western Conference in the Finals in the next three years. Maybe even this year. But if you think that Perkins would rather be in Oklahoma and not Massachusetts, you are just plain wrong.
Rewind a few months.
A little known player by the name of Lebron James had just announced he would be taking his talents to South Beach during a one-hour special on ESPN. By the reaction, you’d have thought that he had announced that he obtained his otherworldly skills by making a deal with the devil, and that they were only sustainable by eating a puppy every full moon.
Now I’ll be honest. The way he handled breaking the news…well lets just say that could have been handled better. He failed to inform the Cavaliers that he was leaving until hours before he went on camera. The Decision itself was the first show of its kind, and I would highly doubt it will be imitated anytime soon. The entire thing, giant charity donation or no, came across as overly dramatic, ego-fueled, and honestly just plain tacky.
It’s the hatred he received, and still receives, that leaves me scratching my head. I can sort of understand Cleveland’s ire, what with James being the homegrown hero, the Chosen One destined to lead the city to its first professional sports title since far before I was born.
But from the rest of the world? I mean, come on, the guy took a contract well below his market value to become part of a core of players that could legitimately have a shot at winning multiple titles. Every player in the NBA says that winning is their main concern, but when contract time comes around, nearly all of them sing a different tune. You can trot out the whole collusion angle, but after reports of Chris Paul toasting to joining Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire in New York to form their own Big Three surfaced, and no one called him a rule-breaking ring-chaser.
What it comes down to is this: Lebron exercised his free agent rights to put himself in the best position he could to win a title. After several years of playing in Cleveland, the best number two scoring options they could deliver were Larry Hughes and Mo Williams. Maybe Shaq should also be in there. These people as the second option do not a contender make. Many of the front office maneuvers were questionable to say the least. So he left.
I submit to you a hypothetical situation. Maybe Lebron has a couple of season ending injuries during his time in Cleveland. Maybe he doesn’t become the best basketball player in the league. Maybe the Cavs miss the playoffs two years in a row despite him playing his heart out. Do you really think then-GM Danny Ferry doesn’t consider trading Lebron at any point to put his team in a better position, especially if he thinks that The King will leave when his contract expires?
Kendrick Perkins knows the answer to that question.
At the end of the day, I don’t believe Lebron James is not some basketball villain. I don’t believe he is an underhanded cheater who is ruining the integrity of the game. I believe he is a good guy who made a decision to switch jobs, so he could try to get more fulfillment out of his career. Maybe you believe differently, and that is completely fine. You can hate Lebron for The Decision as much as you want.
But it is foolish, not to mention hypocritical, to hate him for making his own decision.
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