Flatly disagree... we have skills and we sell those skills. NBA players are no different. I went to college to obtain a skillset that I use to get money. Calling it business is such a vague and wide ranging term for it, but it's not necessarily wrong. If they were considered consultants or contractors, they would be self-employed. Do NBA players file a W2?
I don't understand why the people/employee/brand/business classifications came up here. Paul Allen and Jody may get W2's from the Blazers. Yeah I guess that would make them employees too; even if they are also the owner. Plenty of owners of business get a W2 for the employee duties or even the CEO type duties they do.
I think it's silly not to look at athletes..... or actors.... or really any celebrity as anything other than a business. They do endorsements. They have a brand. Dame has made A LOT of money outside of basketball. So I'm not sure why anyone would look at someone like Dame and think of him as anything other than a businessman. His product is himself. Especially after this whole NIL money has come into college sports. NIL is big business for many celebrities. So yes, Dame collects money for PLAYING basketball, but his business goes beyond that. His music... his commercials... his shoes.... All part of his brand/business.
It does make sense with a 3rd or more teams (Herro/etc) being essential in this deal that the discussions would take a break while most of the entire league is on vacation then pickup as we get closer to camp.
Yes theres a business dynamic that this can be viewed from with Dame or every star NBA player. I'm not sure if maybe some fans hear business and think that means its unpassionate, unemotional, cutthroat, or every decision reduced to immediately selfishly grabbing dollars. Yes it can be, but it doesn't have to be. Plenty of people have devoted the majority of time in their lives to something related to their business. Or they make business decisions that spend a ton of money immediately with zero return - but it may eventually help them with goodwill/marketing/connections.
I might have found Fentress's burner. What are the odds that there's another account on X-Twitter that stans Fentress posts, is anti-Blazer front office and goes by the addy @Fentocity? Or maybe it was @Fentrocity.
When Joe wasn't able to negotiate a deal last year with #7 and undoubtably knew he had to get something done so he went into tank mode. I believe he was sincere in wanting to pull something to keep Dame here, however, when we got #3, I believed his strategy immediately changed, even though he publicly said after the lottery that it was still his intention to build around Dame, and he would gauge the market for #3 and other assets. This is where Dame jumped off, he knows Joe decided to play it safe for job security and not being able to hit the home run to build around Dame. #3 gave him the perfect opportunity to change direction. Starting over and going young everyone knows most GM's, get at least 2-4 years to create something when they go young and rebuild.
I'm sure there were lots of trade scenarios that would make sense to us that were never considered by the other team. Look at what Miami is offering for Damian Lillard. What was Joe Cronin supposed to trade Scoot Henderson for? What is the trade that Cronin didn't make that Dame is mad about?
