This. Dame flexing and making his whole persona and message for the last 11 years look like a fabrication. Just consider that for a second: You've got the super-max. You're leaving an organization that even put your cousin on the roster for two years. You talked about wanting to win in Portland, not wanting to be on a super-team and not running from the grind and being no-nonsense -- but suddenly you want your former team gutted so your NBA finalist new team has a slightly better chance to win and you only will play for one team. That sounds like the biggest diva move in the NBA in a long time, and that's saying a lot. It's also unprofessional. IMO, if Dame was traded to another contender, he wouldn't sit and pout, but this is a really bad look for his people to even suggest it. They must really think NBA fans all over the country will support him and the Blazers will cave as a result. Thing is, when you tell Celtics fans, Bucks fans, Sixer fans, etc. fans that their team isn't good enough for you, they have a lot less reason to be in your corner and to blindly believe the BS you're throwing out there.
I think the idea that this was a fractured relationship months ago and that Dame might have kind of grated on the Blazers with passive-aggressive demands might have not made them miss him.
All these talking heads talking about the Blazers "doing right by Dame" don't seem to realize that the Blazers appear to be trying very hard to "do right by Dame." The evidence of this to me is that Dame hasn't been traded yet. The Blazers appear to be bending into a pretzel to send Dame to the Heat. Why? Because they are trying to "do right by Dame," while at the same time doing the best they can for Blazers fans.
Tinfoil hat: is nobody else suspicious that Dame stuck around so that he could sign the absolute highest salary he could get, and then as soon as he can traded, he now asks for a trade to a contender?
Yeah. Either Harvey Dent or Daenerys Targeryen on the final two episodes of Game of Thrones. It's the complete heel turn that you never ever saw coming because it made absolutely no sense. At least Two-Face was in a catastrophic accident that left his fiancee' dead and him hideously deformed.
There's been a rumor that a divorce is brewing between Dame and his wife, and its been going like that for a few months. Add to the other close friends who have died around him, I can totally see his strong desire to be in Miami. I don't think he did this knowingly a year ago @Natebishop3
Interesting. She's been absent from his socials for quite awhile. Even when he's with his kids you never see her around. Their tiktok hasn't been updated since last December.
I don't think very many people are going to be into that theory because he could have asked out to a contender after the Olympics and been with his new team long enough to qualify for the same supermax extension from that team. I think Dame really loved it here and wanted to spend his entire career here. I think Dame thought that if he made it clear to Joe that if Joe kept going young Dame would ask out that there was no way that Joe would continue to go young. I think it's really that simple.
Dame, you're kind of doing what I thought couldn't be done and really souring me on you. It's legit making me sad he's being so inconsiderate to the organization. I get he feels maybe betrayed or lied to, but come on, this is the business side of it (which you can argue for dames attitude as well, I get it) but man...
This makes more sense. When people said his family was pushing for Miami, I was thinking to myself......why in the hell would any wife encourage her rich famous husband to move to Miami of all places? Way too many gorgeous women.
Yeah but I think once he made the decision to not seek a trade two years ago, he was stuck with us until...... now.
