I feel like I'm on another planet with the amount of thinkpieces and angry comments I've seen about how the NBA simply must do something about players demanding trades and free agency collusion in general after the past month. The two most recent victims of players demanding trades got gigantic hauls for the players who wanted out. The free agency period in general has never brought the league more offseason attention and the way it currently operates is a direct product of shitty owners and front offices asking the players to first agree to a max contract that shortchanges the very top stars and then cut the length from 7 to 6 to 5 years because they couldn't help themselves from things like the Allan Houston contract. In addition to the greater attention, this upcoming season looks like it will have far more uncertainty and parity at the top than the league has had in ages, so I really don't understand the outcry here compared to the aftermath of Durant to Golden State or Lebron to Miami.

The only way I could ever see myself getting on board with any kind of penalty for players asking to be traded while under contract is if there's a symmetrical punishment for teams trading contracted players who don't want to go. There's no way you can convince me that I should be angrier about Paul George or Anthony Davis for wanting out than at the Clippers for trading Blake Griffin or the Celtics for trading Isaiah Thomas.

Fuck these fans who express outrage at trade demands or free agency strategizing. If the fan quits his job to work in a better location or for more money then ain't no one gonna complain about that. So shut the fuck up.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

What you both are missing out on is that it's less about the players or the front offices. It's about the fan bases. If all the star players cluster in a few preferred markets is that good for the league?

Plugged in sports fans may enjoy these off-seasons, but they are going to watch anyway.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

NBA fans don't root for teams. They jerk it to players

Those are the very online fans. Local fan interest is important to fill up arenas.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

So in this case its ok to compare professional athletes to Joe 6 Pack working a " normal" job ?

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Maybe Joe Six Pack should work harder and then he could demand to work anywhere he wants.

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I open my mail one envelope at a time, just like LeBron Durant.

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-- source

Beat me to it. That was a ridiculous post.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Correct. Kirkwood's post represents like 1% of NBA fans.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Not too long ago I would love to go to a Bulls game. Now I wouldn't go if you gave me free tickets.

Chicago, NY should not be ran like the 3rd rate franchises. I don't blame the players for the problems with the NBA. I blame the owners of these undesirable teams.

Just because a player wants to be traded doesn't mean you have to trade him. Problem solved.

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I agree wholeheartedly. Once you get past local rooting interest it becomes about individual players and not teams.

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Was Westbrook a demand? The first story sounded like that, but then a later update said he was "open" to a trade. Not sure if that was just his camp trying to spin it.

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No it doesn't. Just take the guys on this board for instance. Look at how many of them all of a sudden became TWolves fans after they acquired Buckets; Taj, and made Thibs coach. They had no rooting interest in the Wolves before that and couldn't care less about the team after they have departed.

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More like a subtle demand.

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Just because a player demands a trade doesn't mean that the owners have to acquiesce. If the owners stop giving in then the demands will stop.

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Watching players that used to be on your team means that you developed an interest in them because they once wore the uniform of the team you care about. It doesn't "prove" that people care about individual players. It's the opposite in fact.

If people only care about individual players then get rid of teams and have skills competitions that go around the country. That way we won't have to worry about bench players and their plus minus.

The NBA clearly has a problem. Stars only want to play in a few markets. The Finals MVP elected to go to LA rather than defend his title. It certainly makes many casual fans far less interested in taking the NBA seriously.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

That's pretty much just IMU, who isn't a Bulls fan, and Walt which, who the fuck knows. I'll root for certain guys more than others, and teams, but I think that's true of pretty much anyone who follows any national sport. There's no question who my favorite team is though, it's the Bulls, and I think the vast majority of NBA fans feel the same way about their team and the rest of the league.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Unsurprisingly you don't quite understand. People became Wolves fans because of Jimmy Butler and Thibs. It wasn't that they simply followed the team. They rooted for the team to win.

FavreFan is one of the biggest NBA fans on this board. Not to be confused with best as most of his thoughts stink.

Its fairly obvious that he roots for players i.e. Kawhi, Lonzo, Trae, Mitchell, and not teams. His love for whatever team they play for dissipates the second they depart.

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Local teams don't apply.

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what? That doesn't make any sense.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

That's not true. I still like the Spurs and would consider them my "2nd favorite" team over the Jazz. They're just even more boring than usual currently so not much to say

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

If Mitchell is traded from the Jazz tomorrow will you still root for them? I doubt it.

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Guys that have only an interest in their local team are not applicable.

I'm talking about guys that claim to root for out of town teams.

Their interest in the out of town team is predicated on particular players being on the team

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No I won’t. That’s what I’m saying. I like Mitchell so I usually root for the Jazz when they aren’t playing the Bulls or Spurs. But this isn’t a unique to NBA fans thing. I like Baker Mayfield a lot so I’m probably gonna root for the Browns more often than not next year. I don’t think it’s unusual for fans to like certain players and therefore root for the team they play for in general. That doesn’t negate having a favorite (usually local) team that will always take precedence over any other.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

If the NBA wants to get away from players clustering in a few cities they need to go to a hard salary cap.

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Oh. Right. But that’s not unique to the NBA. Kirkwood was saying nba fans care more about individuals than local teams and i think that’s ridiculous. You’re arguing something completely separate

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

He never specifically said local teams.

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I root for certain players, and the occasional team in pretty much all sports except baseball.

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Why would he need to? That was a given

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul