Kawhi Leonard may 'sit out' at Toronto? THIS IS WHY I HATE TODAY'S NBA...

This isn't new. Steve Francis forced his way out of Vancouver in 1999 before ever playing an NBA game.

I've been a sports fan my whole life and I've never understood why professional athletes are treated like cattle. Imagine your boss called you into his office tomorrow and told you he traded your services to a company in Anchorage. Would you go? I think all players should have to agree to trades before they happen, and I'll take things a step farther. Eliminate the draft. We have a salary cap to keep the playing field even, let players play where they want to play. If the best offer is with Cleveland then eventually the good player will choose Cleveland over whatever minimum salary is on the table in Los Angeles.

The system is rigged in favor of the best teams in college and it's entirely up to the player where they want to play, yet we balk at professionals who want to choose the best situation for themselves? I don't understand it and I never will.

Well they have to have a league where every team has an equal chance to win.   A sports league has to be supported by a fan base.   And a fan in Utah has to have a reason to watch too or the league dies.

Free agency in general is bad for that.   Why would a fan in Utah or Toronto watch when players don't want to play for their team?    Your college example is a great illustration of how that works.   The overwhelming majority of colleges have no chance to win a championship.   It's a flawed system for competition. 

I'm all for players being paid...they earn it.   That's why we watch.   But I'm a fan so I also balk at the idea that the interests of fans don't matter.    We are literally the only branch of the sports trinity (owners, players, fans) who are expected to be "loyal".    The owners and players can treat the fans like crap and that's not a problem.   Only fans are expected to care about the interests of the other two branches.   Owners and players act in their interest first.

Employees everywhere are "treated like cattle" if you term it that way.    Does a person who works for Walmart or Bank of America get to change to a different branch without permission?   Of course not.    The company would be in chaos if that happened.

So I'm not a fan of free agency in the first place.   But I also like that players get the money they deserve.   The salary cap makes that a problem though.   Teams have to make choices every year that are not in the best interest of winning because of the salary cap.    If there is a way to make it fair to fans, pay the players, and keep the league healthy I'm all for that.    But I'm not about to put the fans last on that list.

But college sports will never be as popular as pro sports.   It's based on regional loyalty.   That's why the fan base for New Hampshire is so much smaller than the fan base for Duke.   If you went to New Hampshire or live in that area of course you'll cheer for them...but why would anyone else be a fan?

How is that fair to the fans?



They have the exact same opportunities.    You can quit Bank of America any time you want and go to another bank.   You can quit the NFL any time you want and go into broadcasting or the CFL.   There is nothing "hopeless" about it.   Demarco Murray just quit this week.   Making less money is the choice you make.   They pay you more money in every industry on earth to offset you giving up things you want.   Doctors make more money because they put in enormous time and money into education and work long hours.   They can give all that up any time they want.

And again...how is free agency fair to fans?    Why are fans expected to suppress their desires in favor of players and owners?   Why would a fan in Cleveland or Buffalo bother watching the NFL?    The fan is one third of this equation too.



Not a good example to bring up the Celtics.   If you were a Kings fan that would a lot harder to do.  (which is why the Kings get minuscule ratings compared to the Celtics and Lakers)

The fans have a choice...and so do the players.   They can quit any time they want.   Either work for the NBA and NFL or don't.    Those leagues have to maintain competitive balance....that is literally their #1 goal as an entity.

I don't see any evidence that FA is making anything more competitive.   It's never been fair even without FA.   Smaller markets were always at a disadvantage.    Green Bay was one of those odd outliers.    FA just makes it worse.   Now how could the Jazz or Portland ever win anything?    Damian Lillard actually made an open plea for Lebron to come to Portland and join him.    We just laughed.   That was never going to happen.

I would definitely feel for Lebron if he had been stuck in Cleveland for his whole career.   They are a terrible organization.  (How do you have Lebron for 11 years and just get 1 ring?)   But him being able to leave doesn't help Cavs fans at all.

FA certainly hasn't made MLB any more popular.   It used to be the #1 sport in the USA....now it's fighting with the NBA for 2nd....well behind the NFL.

Sure if I'm a player I want as much as I can get.   Being able to play where I want would sound fantastic.   But you aren't making the case why any fan should want that.   Of course the owners are against it too, but I don't care about them either.   This is why the fans line up with the owners on so many issues.   Our desires are often the same.   Fans just care about our teams having an equal chance to win even if we live in a small market.

College sports aren't based on regional loyalty, they're based on winning. Do you think all Duke fans are from North Carolina? All NY Yankees fans are from New York? The collegiate system isn't fair to the fans and they show up anyway, this was my point.


You can quit Bank of America and go to another bank. But quitting the NFL to play in an inferior league or become a broadcaster is a major step down in prestige and salary, it isn't even close to being a comparable opportunity. Odd argument. As I already explained, anybody can be a branch manager for Bank of America; an elite pro athlete has specific skills that make him a commodity of significant value. It's entertainment and the athlete literally is the show.

But let's flip that argument around. Imagine the rest of the world worked the way pro sports do. To stick with the bank analogy, let's say I always wanted to be the branch manager of my local bank, but I got drafted by bank of America. I shouldn't be allowed to pursue an opportunity with my local bank? I should work at a gas station instead because hey, that's the choice I made by not wanting to work for bank of America. It's ludicrous.


How's the draft been working out for Sacramento? Switching formats literally could not be any worse for them. Players choosing their own destinies would probably have the same success rate as executives doing it.

Dynasties have ruled the early years of most sports league, pro or otherwise, and the popularity of those leagues was built on those dynasties. Competitive balance came along with free agency, by not allowing the one competent and/or financially secure team to hold onto the best players indefinitely.


Agreed, and that isn't what I set out to do. I'm looking at it from the player's perspective; from the average person's perspective. Any normal person would try to maximize their opportunities in life, pro athletes are no different.

Your 'fan' perspective treats players as property instead of accepting their rights as laborers. There's no reason a person should be forced to either work for the bank that drafted them or find a new occupation picking up elephant dung at the circus. Same goes for pro athletes. Suggesting they either play for one team or go become broadcasters is crazy.

As an aside, the NBA has only had 11 franchises win championships since 1980. 11 franchises in 38 years. Not much of an argument for competitive balance under the current format.

Look. I am not a fan of Kawhi but he is what he is. A top 5 NBA player and probably the best two way player in NBA. Unless he has not recovered to his normal game there is very very less chance that Toronto are going to finish at no.5 We also need to remember that DeMar is not a good 3 point shooter whereas Kawhi probably had best 3 point shooting percentage in 2016-17.

I think a lot depends on his health! Which there is no way of knowing at present.