OT Paul Pierce Compares KD Joining Dubs to Kid Getting Beaten Up, Joining Bullies

"I'm just not built like that," the Truth said. "I'm not a guy who goes into the neighborhood, gets beat up by the bully's gang and then now I want to join your gang

 

LMAO he has a point.

 

I agree.

But, he kinda tried to shop a championship toward the end of his career as well.

Difference obviously being that Durant is in his prime.

What Durant did by joining the Warriors is whats wrong with the NBA today. Nearly no parity, the playoffs have been boring, the Finals should be good, but what a snooze fest these playoffs have been. 95% of the teams know they have no chance to win it all at the beginning of the year.

I blame a lot of this on David Stern changing the NBA in the late 90's to a zero tolerance fighting policy. Along with the softening of the NBA has come the departure of true rivalries.

I love the sport of basketball and happen to be from Portland where our only legit pro sports franchise is an NBA team. So I'm a diehard NBA fan. But the product sucks, its predictable and the lack of parity makes it at the bottom of the 3 major sports when it comes parity. Which makes the NBA pretty shitty.

 

Parity was terrible in the '80s, too. Two teams were perpetual contenders with a team here and there that could challenge for a title any given year. It's not particularly different from today--every title hasn't been won by Cleveland/Miami or Golden State. San Antonio has won, Dallas has won. San Antonio was a legitimate contender this year if it weren't for injuries.

It was a cosmic fluke that allowed Golden State to hoard this much talent--a lot of things had to break a certain way and they did. Yeah, that might make things boring for a few years, but less boring than the '90s, where the Bulls were basically expected to win every year. The intrigue was basically in who they'd beat, and what Jordan might do, not whether they were going to win.

For drama, the NBA is probably at the bottom of the barrel (baseball is at the top, because baseball playoffs are inherently more random). But the quality of play has never been higher, IMO. Offensive and defensive schemes are the most sophisticated in league history and the best teams pass beautifully, rather than pound isolations.

 

Pierce was prepared to do it in his prime. He told management that he wasn't prepared to keep losing and was considering free agency if they couldn't turn things around. They picked up Garnett and Allen and obviously the rest is history.

I remember reading a history of the Jordan years for the Bulls, where Jordan was getting angry and frustrated with not progressing in terms of how far the Bulls got in the playoffs and told management that they had to make some moves or he wanted out. If he had the current free agency rules, it's not at all inconceivable that he could have sought a winning situation. I could easily see him and Barkley trying to create a "super team" had that possibility existed back then.

A lot of situations that "past stars never did" are going to happen because rules change.

 

Now instead of the Bulls winning every year, its the same two teams in the finals every year. In the past 5 years, we've had two different matchups (MIA vs. SAS, and CLE vs. GSW). Lebron has been in the last 7 finals. At least the West was entertaining in the 90s with multiple teams having a chance at making the finals. Now there's no intrigue in either conference.

 

This is technically correct, but at least in the 90's the Bulls weren't blowing out every team by 30 points in the process.

 

Hard to say if that wasn't just posturing by Jordan. They were getting to the Eastern Conference finals and Jordan was young still. Its not like it was ground breaking moves that got them over the hill (past the Pistons). It was just their time.

I also think there is a significant difference in wanting a trade, and joining forces with a perennial championship contender for less money.

 

W.

 

Best analogy to describe KD EVER.

 

If you think that's the only difference or even the main difference, you would be completely wrong. You're comparing apples to asparagus.

 

Boston with Bird and the Lakers with Magic and Kareem were super teams.

You should go back and look at how those Celts were assembled. The trade for Parish was highway robbery.

 

IMO, I don't think there's one thing wrong with what LeBron did except for making it a Primetime special.

 

Well, ask yourself this:

Would you take 20 Million (gave 5 Mil to the Boys & Girls Club) to announce your FA decision? Yeah, I would too.

 

i agree but find it ironic that he had ray ray and KG run to his squad for a ship then they tried it again in new jersey but were too old.

 

When was KG a teammate of Lebron?

Edit. Nvm you meant PP.

Weren't KG and Jesus traded to Boston?