Chris Paul is a shameless copycat

[Vlade4GM]

We missed almost two months of the NBA season and yet we're still stuck here fearing the same crap we did before the lockout. Paul requesting a trade to the Knicks? It seems completely unfeasible, but this is getting absolutely ridiculous. I can't think of a better way to spoil basketball permanently than to have this turn into a permanent trend where the star players just consolidate with each other to manipulate their way onto the same team. Do basketball players have any pride anymore? Although maybe I'm giving basketball players too much credit in implying they ever did.

The bright side is that Paul's request will probably never be fulfilled while the league owns the team. The NBA trading Paul to the Knicks? Man, if the NBA's fanbase wasn't already full of conspiracy nuts, it would be after that. Still, the fact that he feels comfortable making this request, and Howard and Williams are probably gearing up to do something similar, is a very bad sign. If they pull this off, then the only hope the NBA has is that these teams don't pan out because of their crappy depth, and therefore stops being trendy.

 

[kingsnation]

We missed almost two months of the NBA season and yet we're still stuck here fearing the same crap we did before the lockout. Paul requesting a trade to the Knicks? It seems completely unfeasible, but this is getting absolutely ridiculous. I can't think of a better way to spoil basketball permanently than to have this turn into a permanent trend where the star players just consolidate with each other to manipulate their way onto the same team. Do basketball players have any pride anymore? Although maybe I'm giving basketball players too much credit in implying they ever did.

The bright side is that Paul's request will probably never be fulfilled while the league owns the team. The NBA trading Paul to the Knicks? Man, if the NBA's fanbase wasn't already full of conspiracy nuts, it would be after that. Still, the fact that he feels comfortable making this request, and Howard and Williams are probably gearing up to do something similar, is a very bad sign. If they pull this off, then the only hope the NBA has is that these teams don't pan out because of their crappy depth, and therefore stops being trendy.

*sigh* Unfortunately, couldn't have said it better.

 

[Sac.1989]

Yep its a joke really is. He has a significant chance to win a championship at boston and go down in history as a great part of their renaisance but instead he'll refuse a trade pining for the bright lights of NY.

The CBA enables teams to outbid all others but the fact is if your superstar wants to move on and makes that clear, your not going to let them walk for less money but rather try and get something in return.

If i was the hornets i trade him to boston if their willing to take a shot at convincing him to stay and have a last ditch shot at a chip for Rondo.

 

[sidney]

I really do wish they would have done something to fix this with the new CBA - like if you max your guy in years and money he is restricted.

Knicks fans are already touting a package of Toney Douglas, Landry Fields, Shumpert, and some way future picks for Paul. It shouldn't happen, but if NO is faced with losing Paul for nothing because Paul refuses to sign an extension anywhere but NY it's possible that it happens.

When you're starving to death and someone offers you nothing or a crap sandwich...well...sometimes you just have to eat.

Hopefully a solid team offers the Hornets something better for Paul without a guarantee of an extension.

 

[Vlade4GM]

What I have a hard time believing though that there isn't one team out there willing to risk getting Paul on a rental deal with a package that's better than NY's scraps.

 

[Vlade4GM]

Now it's coming out that "he" didn't make a trade request. LOL, I seem to remember Melo pulling the exact same crap, "oh I'm not making any trade requests," while his agent makes it for him.

 

[sidney]

What I have a hard time believing though that there isn't one team out there willing to risk getting Paul on a rental deal with a package that's better than NY's scraps.

somewhere someone floated the idea - what if Miami offered Bosh? Hornets would probably love to have a star signed long term in Bosh. Would Miami dare do that? How could Paul resist signing an extension there? Would be pretty funny

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I really do wish they would have done something to fix this with the new CBA - like if you max your guy in years and money he is restricted.

They tried, it was called a hard cap. The players wouldn't go for it, to put things lightly.

Knicks fans are already touting a package of Toney Douglas, Landry Fields, Shumpert, and some way future picks for Paul. It shouldn't happen, but if NO is faced with losing Paul for nothing because Paul refuses to sign an extension anywhere but NY it's possible that it happens.

When you're starving to death and someone offers you nothing or a crap sandwich...well...sometimes you just have to eat.

No way I do that if I'm the Hornets. I take a stand. I dare the Knicks to sign no two-year contracts this offseason and probably doom themselves to sub-.400 ball so they can clear room to sign Paul as a free agent next year. I dare Paul to take a below-market contract to play in New York when he signs under the salary cap rules (lax as they are). I'm not interested in helping other people build dynasties.

This CBA was SUPPOSED to fix this, before the players essentially won out on systems issues.

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

Can't say I blame him. I'd rather play on the Knicks with Amare and Carmello too. As far as people getting up in arms over this, players are free to request trades. The only way to prevent it is to have franchise tags.

 

[Kingster]

Now it's coming out that "he" didn't make a trade request. LOL, I seem to remember Melo pulling the exact same crap, "oh I'm not making any trade requests," while his agent makes it for him.

And I remember this **** was going on all season long. I hope that doesn't happen with Paul. The CBA should have dealt with this. It failed in that regard.

 

[SacTownKid]

Gutless pansies. What happened to the days where the players fought for the city and the name on the front of the jersey because they wanted to prove something.

 

[est.1999]

The guy is a chump. At least play your contract out.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Gutless pansies. What happened to the days where the players fought for the city and the name on the front of the jersey because they wanted to prove something.

When was that - at least in professional sports? Still happens in college, and that's one reason I tend to like pure athletics, pagentry, traditions, of collegiate basketball and football better than pro variety. Ever since big time free agency pro athletes could care less about what you're talking about - because it's all about (or mostly about) their money, their fame, their ego. I think a lot of professional basketball (and other major sports) fans are rather naive to think some favorite player actually cares deeply about them, their town, the jersey on their back - they really don't. These multi-millionaire athletes do a good job masking it and making everyone think they care and bleed the team colors passionately - but nope, it's mostly just show. It all sort of reminds me of those long ago immortal words of Cowboys running back Duane Thomas when asked by some giddy Dallas locker room reporter just after his team won NFC championship how it felt to go to the NFL championship game and he said: "If the Super Bowl is the ultimate, why do they play it every year?"

 

[sidney]

No way I do that if I'm the Hornets. I take a stand. I dare the Knicks to sign no two-year contracts this offseason and probably doom themselves to sub-.400 ball so they can clear room to sign Paul as a free agent next year. I dare Paul to take a below-market contract to play in New York when he signs under the salary cap rules (lax as they are). I'm not interested in helping other people build dynasties.

Sure, I agree. But even Dan Gilbert in all his comic sans rage relented at the last minute and gave Lebron his extra year in exchange for the poor picks and trade exception. I'm not confident that NO wouldn't do the same if it came down to the wire, but I hope they refuse.

 

[kingsnation]

Gutless pansies. What happened to the days where the players fought for the city and the name on the front of the jersey because they wanted to prove something.

Those days began to slowly die when Malone and Payton bolted for LA. They officially died when KG, Allen and Pierce won a title.

And it's pretty hard to blame anyone when the superstar face of the league (Lebron), is perhaps the biggest person to blame for all of this. He is the prototype for what you are describing and yet the best player in basketball today.

 

[Kingster]

I don't agree with the "they all do it, so don't blame Paul" theme. There is a guy in OKC who isn't like that. And there are probably others as well. Boston is an entirely different example, in which trades occurred to make it happen. Lebron is an A** and everyone knows he's an A** so if that's Chris Paul's role model, we know what he is. Just like with Miami, I hope Chris Paul fails.

 

[Vlade4GM]

"There is a guy in OKC who isn't like that"

...yet. Durant is probably an exception though, and not because of his character or anything, but he happens to have been drafted with a team that managed themselves very well.

 

[UK_King]

Does anyone actually think that Paul won't end up in NY and Dwight won't end up a Laker?

Competitive Balance....

 

[bajaden]

Well I guess we know why Paul was so vocal at the meetings during the lockout, and why he got into a shouting match with Stern. He was thinking about his future, and how the CBA would affect it. What he's attempting to do is the exact thing the owners were trying to stop. I read an article today that sounded reasonable. Orlando is having the same problem with Howard. The main reason Howard wants to leave is because he wants to play on a team thats competitive. Orlando also has players and draft picks it can offer. So see if Orlando would trade for Paul without the extension. Paul would make Orlando competitive, and maybe make himself and Howard happy as well.

 

[jalfa]

Does anyone actually think that Paul won't end up in NY and Dwight won't end up a Laker?

Competitive Balance....

NY as in the Knicks or as in the Knicks or Nets? Because I see a decent chance either one of them might end up in Brooklyn.

 

[Vlade4GM]

Well I guess we know why Paul was so vocal at the meetings during the lockout, and why he got into a shouting match with Stern. He was thinking about his future, and how the CBA would affect it. What he's attempting to do is the exact thing the owners were trying to stop. I read an article today that sounded reasonable. Orlando is having the same problem with Howard. The main reason Howard wants to leave is because he wants to play on a team thats competitive. Orlando also has players and draft picks it can offer. So see if Orlando would trade for Paul without the extension. Paul would make Orlando competitive, and maybe make himself and Howard happy as well.

You seriously think the owners were genuinely trying to create competitive balance? They did not care one bit about competitive balance, they only cared about lining their pockets.

 

[Dime Dropper]

You seriously think the owners were genuinely trying to create competitive balance? They did not care one bit about competitive balance, they only cared about lining their pockets.

Nope, that's not entirely true. For some reason you're overcompensating - we get that you were on the players side, but trying to make the smaller markets more competitive was clearly one of the aims of the owners.

 

[kennadog]

I hate this stuff. I'd like to think we have a shot at re-signing the players we drafted that turn out well. It sucks for fans.

 

[Vlade4GM]

Nope, that's not entirely true. For some reason you're overcompensating - we get that you were on the players side, but trying to make the smaller markets more competitive was clearly one of the aims of the owners.

Nice ad hominem.

 

[Bricklayer]

Nice ad hominem.

Well its prety obvious from that slant. Owners got to 50/50 and actually we still ended up missing more of the season because money WASN'T all they were interested in. Or at least not money as separate from the idea that you have to lose tens of millions in order to win, which is just unsustainable. These guys don't buy NBA teams as an investement. They buy them as toys. As real live versions of NBA Live or whatever. Every single one of them, except Sterling probably, wants to be able to compete and win and not go broke doing it. Recent events have begun to tilt the table against small market guys in a severe way, and they were willing to hold out to try to correct some of that. Unfortunately they could not get enough of it done to fix the problem this time, but they gave it a go trying to balance the financial impact of big vs. small market. I think the Lakers new mega TV deal was definitely on their mind. Nobody can compete with that if you don't have on severe restraints. But I think the mistake that was made was not going all in for a franchise player tag. Rather than trying to restrict the vast middle class via MLE's I would have gone directly after the problem of the superstars colluding to divy up the league. I might have done better with the union too, because that was the way the battle was won in '98, by pitting the unwashed masses against the stars.

 

[Dime Dropper]

Nice ad hominem.

That wasn't an ad hominem.

 

[mac]

Well I guess we know why Paul was so vocal at the meetings during the lockout, and why he got into a shouting match with Stern. He was thinking about his future, and how the CBA would affect it. What he's attempting to do is the exact thing the owners were trying to stop. I read an article today that sounded reasonable. Orlando is having the same problem with Howard. The main reason Howard wants to leave is because he wants to play on a team thats competitive. Orlando also has players and draft picks it can offer. So see if Orlando would trade for Paul without the extension. Paul would make Orlando competitive, and maybe make himself and Howard happy as well.

What I can't stand about this whole "play on a contender/winning" bs is that they (Howard, Lebron) came from teams that recently made the finals/ went deep in the playoffs for a good number of years. If this is the attitude that players these days are taking then I wish all Kings fans very good luck, because when Tyreke and DMC are reaching the end of their contracts we wouldn't have had success remotely near that of pre-LBJ leaving Cleveland, current Orlando, and even the Hornets.

 

[bajaden]

You seriously think the owners were genuinely trying to create competitive balance? They did not care one bit about competitive balance, they only cared about lining their pockets.

Come on Vlade, I'm getting a little sick of this lets hate the rich people thing. You think all wealthy people are just clones of one another. That they don't have the same desires you do. That they get up in the morning and all they can think of is how much money they have and how may people they can screw to make more. I hate and despise generalizations. I hate and despise when people lump everyone into one group and then attack them.

People are individuals, and they should be treated as such. When a society doesn't, bad things happen!

 

[Vlade4GM]

Come on Vlade, I'm getting a little sick of this lets hate the rich people thing. You think all wealthy people are just clones of one another. That they don't have the same desires you do. That they get up in the morning and all they can think of is how much money they have and how may people they can screw to make more. I hate and despise generalizations. I hate and despise when people lump everyone into one group and then attack them.

People are individuals, and they should be treated as such. When a society doesn't, bad things happen!

I'll retract what I said to the point that I admit that how I phrased it was based on an emotional reaction to what is going on right now.

What I should have stated was that I don't think that many of the "hardline owners" (that were mostly just the new owners in the NBA) were as much about competitive balance as they made out. Which is why they caved much more on system issues than they did on the BRI. Lets see how much these small market teams spend this new influx of money over the next few years.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

But in the end the players made a bigger stink about their stake in fixing the balancing issues than the BRI themselves.

I'll never believe that the owners weren't acting out for their own bottom line, it just so happens that in this case the owner's bottom line is best served by having a healthy competitive league and not one with a big 2 or big 4 like you see in European soccer.