NBA loyalty is a see-saw. It can lead to prosperity. It can bite you, too.
A year after Isaiah Thomas was expecting a Brinks-size truck of cash, he took a dramatic turn and signed with the Nuggets for the veterans’ minimum. In what has to be one of the most dramatic reversals in recent NBA history, Thomas went from a 2x All-Star with an MVP level season last year (29 ppg) to becoming a club’s low-risk move financially.
Isaiah’s circumstance may the result of being loyal.
“Isaiah has worked tirelessly to manage this injury since it first occurred,” Celtics Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian McKeon said. “The swelling increased during the first two games against Cleveland and in order to avoid more significant long-term damage to his hip, we could no longer allow him to continue.”
Courtesy: YouTube
Isaiah even played in the first game of the 2017 playoffs–a day after his sister’s death–but was then traded by the Celtics later in the year. After Thomas was traded, Caron Butler and Ray Allen took to Instagram to call out the club’s hypocrisy: “When players aren’t “loyal” to their teams there’s outrage, but there’s no similar reaction when, say, a team trades a player who played in a game two days after his sister passed away while
recovering from dental surgeries and battling a painful hip injury.”
The more I thought about Thomas’ case, I concluded that Chris Paul made a good decision by sitting out Games 6 and 7 against the Warriors in what were arguably the most important games of his career.
Paul, who entered free-agency this off-season, was looking for a max contract and didn’t want to risk his chances of injury. Even though his decision cost the Rockets the NBA Finals (not to mention the Championship) the franchise valued what Paul brought to the table. As a result, the team was convinced on signing Paul and did so with a 4-year $160 million contract.
Had Isaiah pulled a Chris Paul, he might have gotten himself a lucrative contract from any of the NBA’s teams, if not from the Celtics.
Courtesy: YouTube
Kevin Durant’s choice to leave the Thunder for the 73-win Warriors birthed the My Next Chapter Meme and a perception that he took the easy way out. When Durant went on The Bill Simmons Podcast in August 2016 he had this to say: “Guys have been getting traded in their sleep for years. Guys have been getting the shitty end of the stick for years. I mean, some guys have been fucking over organizations, too. It’s no loyalty. It’s a business. There’s money involved.”
My take is disloyalty is a two-way street in the NBA. Teams stab players in the back. Players do the same.
That’s business. That’s life.
