Alexander J Oberlender
When players want out nobody wins
“The Simmons drama will be great to watch”
That’s a direct quote from my basketball text group with my dad and two guys who sit by us at the Heat games. While for us, it’s slightly entertaining, I also am getting tired of these public dramas. I still remember Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony’s very public breakups with the teams that drafted them. This, in my opinion, is the ugly side of player empowerment. I’m all for players like Lebron James and Kevin Durant, who played out their contracts and decided to move on in free agency.
Part of this is a function of our 24/7 news cycle. Reporters need things to fill the dead air between games. So now they’ve started to read into anything and everything. In some cases, they’re possibly even making up stories , like the recent Damian Lillard incident, where he felt the need to address specific reports that he called BS on.
I loved that Giannis Antetokounmpo re-upped with the Bucks and saw the process through and was rewarded with a ring. I’m happy to see that Dame is locked in in Portland and not pushing for a trade. Even Bradley Beal is still staying professional in Washington while not seeing any real progress so far. That’s how it should be. Players owe it to their fans to be professional. Blowing things up isn’t professional. It’s one thing to tell your team that you plan to leave in free agency, giving them time to try and get something in return, like Kareem Abdul Jabbar did with the Milwaukee Bucks when he grew dissatisfied with the city of Milwaukee, but not with the team.
On the other side, we have James Harden and Ben Simmons. The James Harden drama was aggravating as a fan, and specifically for me as a Heat fan to watch. Every day, it felt like there were new rumors about Harden to every team and that the Heat were actively engaged in it. As a Heat fan since Day 1, this was unnerving since the trade package would have had to include most of our young core, who only a year earlier helped lead us to the NBA Finals in Orlando. But, what irritated me even more, was that yet again, a player was forcing a move with years left on their contract.
Now I’ll pause here to reflect on Jimmy Butler’s demand to leave Minnesota; again, Miami was in the fray to trade for him. There were rumors that Jimmy wanted to be in Miami. I was against us trading for him even if he had just taken the third-string Wolves team and beat the starters while only taking one shot during practice. I’ve been consistent in my disdain for these types of theatrics over the years.
This leads us to today and the newest disgruntled player, Ben Simmons. If you include this upcoming season, Simmons has four years left on his five-year extension. At the same time, Ben Simmons had the gall to say via Brian Windhorst that “it’s not his job to correct his trade value or raise his trade value.” I wholeheartedly disagree. He wants out; it’s his job to show that he’s valuable enough to merit his contract and having been drafted where he was. This is getting tiresome. I’m all for player empowerment and love to see players use their status for good and enrich themselves. What I don’t like is players acting like petulant children with no patience. A contract was signed, the CBA does not provide for players to trade themselves; in fact, the NBA fines players who publicly request trades. If signing a contract doesn’t keep a player with a team, then what’s the point of the contract. I’m sure it sucks for a player to be drafted in the lottery by a losing team, but if not for the way the draft is structured, teams like the Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, or the Golden State Warriors may not have won championships in recent years since they weren’t high profile markets that people wanted to go to. Heck, even my Miami Heat doesn’t seem to be the fantastic destination that I wish it were. You’d think that players would be lining up to be on the Heat with the beaches down here and that we have no state income tax. Instead, I feel we lucked out with the Big 3, and this offseason has been good to us; hopefully, it will lead to another championship run. But, all of that is for another post, back to Ben Simmons and the newest trade demands.
My feeling is that the 76ers should stand their ground on the Simmons issue. Fine him, and don’t pay him for every moment he doesn’t follow through on his obligations. The more that teams stand their ground, the less this will happen. As a league, there need to be some major discussions related to these trade demands in the next CBA. I’d like to see more significant fines and some contract wording that will punish players who become cancers for their teams more than currently is happening. Not to beat a dead horse, but there is indeed no I in team, and I feel like players are acting as if they are more important than the rest of their teammates. Just as hard as being on a losing team, what happens when you sign with a team because you believe they’re situated to win and then one of their stars becomes disgruntled? It’s really a no-win situation.
Now, one thing that may work in the 76ers favor is the fact that John Wall and the Houston Rockets are mutually looking to find him a new home. If I’m the 76ers, I’m working those phones and finding a way to make a trade package for Wall that is amenable to both sides. A simple trade would be Wall and picks for Simmons and a player like Matisse Thybulle or even Seth Curry if Philly wants to mitigate their growing salary total. The question remains will either side do it?
