It’s hard to decipher what caused the NBA to shift from a ruthlessly competitive league with superstars scattered throughout to a buddy-buddy affair where stars are concentrated to a handful of teams lucky enough to not be Milwaukee.
But, if I were to guess the culprit of the trend change, it would be the accessibility of athletes through social media and cell phones. Michael Jordan would likely have to send a letter through the United States Postal Service if he wanted to recruit a superstar, which is a fucking drag. I honestly don’t know how to send a letter. Do I need to go to the post office for a stamp or can I print one online? The whole process is daunting to my spoiled millennial ass.
After Kevin Durant abandoned his team to join the enemy, it has come to light that communication between Warriors players and staff was flowing freely in the days leading up to his decision, culminating in a two-hour meeting at a mansion in the Hamptons with Durant and Golden State’s golden boys: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala.
In a piece written by Marc Spears for The Undefeated today, we are let in on the events that led to the biggest free agent signing since The Decision 2.
Draymond Green told The Undefeated,
“We asked him how many championships do you think we can win with the way the team is now? How many championships can you win without us? How many do you think we can win together?”
Durant expressed his concern with potentially messing with the team mojo and camaraderie, to which the core group of Warriors players stressed that he wouldn’t need to change his game and emphasized their motto: “Strength In Numbers.”
After the meeting, NBA MVP Steph Curry sent Durant a series of text messages with the intention of driving their message home.
According to a person who saw the text messages, Curry told Durant in a text message that he could care less about who is the face of the franchise, who gets the most recognition or who sells the most shoes (Curry is with Under Armor, Durant with Nike). The two-time NBA MVP also told Durant that if Durant won the MVP award again he would be in the front row of the press conference clapping for him. In closing, Curry’s message to Durant was that all he truly cared about was winning championships and he’d like to do that as his teammate.
Over/under: Warriors win three titles with this core intact. Gotta go over, begrudgingly.
Read the whole piece over at The Undefeated.