None of this is surprising.
NBA players run the league, especially superstar players. In this article from the Athletic, the Wizards didn’t even want to trade Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook simply went to the owner and asked for his help. Owners are afraid that if they don’t do what their superstar player asks for, they might tank on the court.
I don’t think Westbrook would do that, but you don’t want a disgruntled superstar player on your team. That always ends up going badly.
The fact that he tried to get Beal to leave too and Beal decided to stay says a lot about Beal.
And before Westbrook resorted to calling Leonsis, he had tried to convince Beal in the weeks leading up to the draft that they should both ask out of Washington, according to sources. Short of Beal showing a desire to also request a trade, Westbrook was hopeful Beal would at least support his efforts to get to L.A. — which, sources said, Beal did.
I am not against superstar team-ups. In 20 years, people will just remember if you won a ring or not. There won’t be much discussion on how you got it.
When Dwight Howard goes into the HOF, they will refer to him as an NBA champion, not a guy who went from an MVP candidate to a role player on the Lakers.
Also, what isn’t surprising is that LeBron makes the decision about who comes to the Lakers in a mafia-style boardroom in his house.
The process unfolded well beyond the team’s front office’s search, with James setting up a war room of his own at his Brentwood estate for some in-person player meetings while leading remote communications in other conversations.
LeBron James purchased his nearly 16,000-square-foot home in the ritzy Westside neighborhood of Brentwood for about $21 million in 2017. Since then, the eight-bedroom mansion with a wine cellar and mahogany cigar lounge in the basement has become a casual command center for many of his business ventures. That was the setting as free agency loomed.
You have to feel bad for Demar Derozan, who participated in these mafia meetings only to be cast aside for Westbrook. Also, for Buddy Hield, who was mere moments from being traded to the Lakers before Westbrook got the owner involved.
In the end, none of this might not matter if the Nets stay healthy and Kyrie decides he wants to play.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out over the course of the season.
Flip the page for a breakdown of the newly formed Lakers.