This Anonymous NBA GM Complaining About Player Empowerment Is Charmin Level Soft
I don't want, I NEED to know who this anonymous NBA GM is. I think we can rule out someone like Sean Marks or Bob Myers since ya know, their teams directly benefitted from this player movement. You know what this sounds like to me? It sounds like a GM that's just upset no stars want to come to their team, or they're a GM of a team that lost a star player. Pretty sure they wouldn't be making that anonymous claim if their team was the one that guys conspired to play for. It's about as soft as it gets. My opinion on this wouldn't change even if it was Danny Ainge that said it. It's embarrassing. The environment has changed, so adapt. Find ways to get better and compete.
An NBA team will not think twice about trading a player if they feel it will make their team better. Doesn't matter what the contract is. Look at what happened to Blake. Guy signed an extension in LA and they traded him to fucking Detroit two seconds later. Why shouldn't the players do everything they can to have as much control as possible? Yeah, it's a little fucked up when someone signs max extensions and then demand to be traded to a specific team like what Harden did all while having multiple years left on his deal. But nobody forced the Rockets to actually trade him though. Harden didn't have leverage in that situation, the Rockets did.
With the Nets being the latest example, let's also not act like that front office didn't do everything they could to even be in a position to build a superteam in the first place. Sean Marks deserves a ton of credit for that. The same is true of Bob Myers when KD went to GS. It took years of creative roster construction for them to even be able to make a move like that.
Whenever these anonymous quotes come out I say the same thing. If you're brave enough to say shit like this, be brave enough to put your name on it. But this GM knows that if his name comes out, it's a wrap for him and that franchise. Nobody is coming to that team. Guess what? This is never going away. This is a new era of the league where the best of the best are going to have more of a say where they play. Instead of complaining about it, figure out how to either
A) Make your team desirable to these elite players
B) Figure out a way to compete within the new landscape
But saying shit like that? Very pathetic.