It seems to me like Dame believes Joe owes him a favor. That "loyal to myself" piece ruined his reputation to me.
I can't articulate this well, but I think something in damian's life outside of basketball has changed his mindset. He's no longer content to just be the greatest blazer. He needs validation of himself and he thinks that can only come from winning a championship.
I honestly think that he is past the championship thing. He wants life in Miami, as successful rap artist.
It's because they aren't. When you've negotiated a near 50/50 revenue split you are more than just employees. When you have employees and are business owners and have multiple multimillion dollar revenue streams, you are more than just an employee. When so many teams have accommodated trade requests, it becomes part of the business model. Dame made a mistake in only giving one option, in my opinion, but he's right that when you view professional athletes' contracts the same way you view other employment contracts, you're being naive. There is a helluva lot more nuance when it comes to NBA teams and players than just employers and employees.
That being the case, I think the solution is simple: Dame and the other players start their own league. They can negotiate arenas, hire GMs, put together schedules, make rules, pay ticketsellers. Maybe they can just have informal rosters and play for whoever they want to on given nights.
That tweet did not say workers, or entertainment. The tweet Lillard responded to said, "NBA players are business". Remember the mean crusty old Owner of the Clippers that got fired? And the Suns recently fired Owner ?? They were saying BAD stuff behind closed doors. Things like, "players are product" leaked out... what happened after that?? everyone went omg... that's horrible, and the Owners were given their walking papers. Now, if ya'll want to change the wording of the tweet and contrive your own variation of what the tweet implied, I'm not here to stop you. But i'll just say the rando trash boy tweet that Lillard responded to is skating on thin ice.
There's a HUGE difference between calling players "product" and saying that they are businesses. I mean, it's completely night and day different.
Ironic that you literally changed the wording yourself. "NBA teams/players are businesses which is why they sign contracts." "businesses" is a different word than "business"
Businesses have brands. Players and media talk about their "brand". Ergo... But it honestly doesn't matter. They are humans.
don't give me this "es" stuff. You know what that tweet is trying to describe. NBA players are people. They are highly gifted athletes. They are human beings. They are hired by a "team" to help create an entertaining work environment. Are they part of the business? absolutely. But NBA players are people first, and they work realy super hard to try to produce a fun to watch product. Players are people, not the businesses.
teams/players is a conjoined word. It means exactly the same thing. The 2 descriptive nouns were not separated in that tweet. They were combined as one word. It was not a clerical error. The tweet was designed with full intentions to make a bigatory statement towards Fentress and Dame, which Lillard simply responded to as "dumb". try and make Lillard the bad guy for saying a dumb tweet was dumb? Such a Villain, meanest player EVER.
Players have a union and representative so they are more than well represented as far as contracts and agents are concerned but draft picks are also assets. Nobody is going to ever convince me Damian Lillard was poorly represented or treated by the Blazers period. What transpired really stopped roster momentum July 1st and still actually since they have left roster spots open for trades and been unable to make moves in limbo.
yes ..!.. that new top 5 rookie next summer is gonna be dope, and we can blame Dame all the way up to next year's ping pong ball extravaganza. #1 !! #1 !! Blazers can put a new billboard on I-5 honk once for [_____], honk twice for [_____]
