nba musings: the nba is a cold hard bitch

Posted on | July 5, 2009 | Comments

There is no such thing as loyalty in professional sports. I guess it makes sense. The team owners are running a business and the only way to keep butts in seats is to win. For the GM, the only way to keep your job is to win and the only way to win is to make the best possible decision at any given time about who to keep and who to dump to keep the wins coming. I know all this. I do. But, as a fan, it’s next to impossible to love your team without identifying with and loving the players. I guess the more years you watch and the more you get your heart broken, the more you come to realize that you’ll be happiest if your only loyalty is to the team. Easier said than done though. So besides Leon Powe getting tragically dumped by Danny Ainge like yesterday’s garbage (too much? perhaps. don’t care. still pissed.) there were some other free agency and trade goings-ons lately and here they are:

Trevor Ariza – from Lakers to Rockets (said he was down forever for the Lakeshow until they didn’t show him the money)
Ron Artest – from Rockets to Lakers (you think he was front row at all those Laker games during the finals for no reason? pishaw!)
Hedo Turkoglu – from Magic to Trailblazers to Raptors (something about more money and his wife’s preference for red maple leaves)
Ben Gordon – from Bulls to Pistons (still having trouble picturing the identity of this team)
Charlie Villaneuva – from Bucks to Pistons (see above)
Richard Jefferson – from Bucks to Spurs (great pickup by the Spurs. damn it.)
Courtney Lee – from Magic to Nets (love CLee, but very happy I won’t have to hear “Courtney Lee, the rookie out of Western Kentucky” ever EVER again)
Marcin Gortat – from Magic to Mavericks (should be fun watching the polish hammer with a bigger role)
Jamal Crawford – from Warriors to Hawks (traded for a can of potato sticks)
Shaq – from Suns to Cavs (the big diesel says he’s going to “win a ring for the king”.. if that’s not a bumper sticker, I don’t know what is)

That’s a whole lot of changes and I didn’t even include them all. This is going to be a crazy off-season. It’s going to be super weird seeing some of these guys in different jerseys. I can’t WAIT for the season to start up again!