As a fan you’re conned into thinking that there’s loyalty in sports. In basketball, when a player is drafted by a team, the team and the fans of that team stakes ownership over that player. They become a permanent member of the franchise, an irreplaceable element of the “family,” so much so that they themselves, the team, and fans across the board become emotionally attached to that player.
If you think classically about basketball history, the greatest examples stay faithful to the franchise they were originally drafted into. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up watching the greatest player of all time, Kobe Bryant, stay strong for my hometown team the Los Angeles Lakers. Through the hardships of 2007, during his tumultuous relationship with his co-leader Shaquille O’Neal, even through rumors he wanted a trade to the Chicago Bulls–Kobe didn’t go. He saw the headlines that called him the “legendary sidekick” that helped Shaq win our rings. He brushed them off. He knew that his skill was unparalleled to what anyone had ever seen before, and that the team couldn’t do what it did without him. He stayed faithful to his organization because they stayed faithful to him and his abilities. He was three championship rings in, and there was still two to go. Loyalty was his destiny.
This rings true for other basketball legends that Kobe was even going up against during the finals. Tim Duncan for the Spurs, Dirk Nowitzki for the Mavs never left. This kind of allegiance to one’s own team set the standard for me and other basketball fans across the nation, thinking that the best, purest player, had one goal in mind: to be the hero of their city.
So when other players who I grew up watching, who are thought to be so essential to their team leave…all hell breaks loose! Kevin Durant, my beloved OKC Thunder small forward goes to the Golden State Warriors–makes a decision to get the easy championship with a team who is just a game away from being back-to-back champions, a team who is clearly the most dominant in the league, what am I as a fan, left to think? That loyalty is dead? That players don’t care about their roots anymore? Is basketball coming to a point where its no longer about facing losses and working hard to get to that sweet win? When I hear about KD’s move, or rumors that LeBron is leaving his hometown Cleveland to “head west,” I am suddenly overwhelmed with a disappointment that players just want to combine powers and make a quick win.
But maybe this dualistic way of thinking isn’t good for me as a fan. Its hard to swallow the fact that players leave, knowing that the best players in my eyes stayed in their lane. But I can’t shame others for taking charge of their own destiny. You think about players nowadays like Demarcus Cousins, who was drafted in Sacramento to play Center for the Kings, and who fell in love with the place. So much so, that he said his jersey will hang in the rafters after he “retires in Sacramento.” But the guy was traded after they told him they would keep him. Same happened to Jimmy Butler on the Chicago Bulls.
The League, in actuality, is a dirty place. It’s one that despite it’s advertisement, puts business before family. As soon as its bad business to keep a player, they’ll trade him without even saying a proper goodbye. This leaves fans blaming the player for not being a Kobe, a Duncan, a Nowitzki. If I’m going to continue to be a basketball fan, I’m going to have to learn that there really is no loyalty. I can’t hold up these standards, because it limits my ability to appreciate what these players are fighting to do, in any city they can get.
I wonder how much the issue you write about is specific to a time. It would make for interesting research to see how many players in whatever league “remained loyal” (and how many teams “remained loyal” to them). I suspect there were more lifers in a previous generation or two. But I don’t really know. (Of course, Wikipedia does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NBA_players_who_have_spent_their_entire_career_with_one_franchise)
I wonder here where the divide is between your two approaches in the writing.
I can’t remember where, but I’ve heard someone say about NBA players moving from team to team more often, that it reflects a larger shift in employment. That just as NBA players rarely stay with one organization any more, American workers rarely stay with one business anymore. The days of a lifelong career with Ford are behind us and it seems to be that the same is true with professional basketball. I think that makes sense to me. It may have less to do with a lack of loyalty or familial bond than with new ways in which businesses are run.