Basketball is a business and there isn’t a more important basketball league in the world than the NBA. That means that, more often than not, organizations view their players as nothing else but assets and investments rather than actual people.
That’s why Draymond Green went on a lengthy rant about the double standard and how the media and the fans talk about players wanting to get traded but they rarely call out the organizations for the way they handle their personnel.
According to Green, it’s time for the franchises to start being respectful to their players, now that both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons have decided to shut down Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond until they trade them or buy them out:
“It’s the treatment of players in this league. To Watch Andre Drummond before the game sit on the sideline and go to the back and come out in street clothes because a team is going to trade him is bullsh*t. (…) At some point, the players must be respected in these situations. It’s ridiculous and I’m sick of seeing it (…) Everyone wants to say, ‘that young man can’t figure it out.’ But no one wants to say the organization can’t figure it out,” Green said after the Golden State Warriors played the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Everyone wants to say, ‘that young man can’t figure it out.’ But no one wants to say the organization can’t figure it out.”
Draymond Green sounds off on a double standard he sees in the NBA. pic.twitter.com/z6R4zq0Bcw
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 16, 2021
Former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade agreed with what Draymond Green had to say, adding that some times people say that players can’t complain because they get paid millions of dollars, regardless of the team doesn’t even care to let them know that they have to move right away:
“I definitely agree it’s a double standard when it comes to ownership or organizations and players. I know a lot of people out there that are like, ‘Oh, you guys are getting paid lots of money. It doesn’t matter.’ But it does, because a lot of players in the league have families… Some players are sometimes told, ‘Hey, you are not getting traded’, then they get traded. Some players have to find out by the media… What it boils down to me is there’s no communication and there’s no respect,” Wade said on NBA on TNT.
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1361845577550471171
Yeah, that’s right, NBA players make more in a year than most people in a lifetime so they have to endure tough challenges at well but that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve the minimum amount of respect to at least get a heads up about their future.
