In a chat with the media following this week’s league-shattering trade, veteran NBA point guard Dennis Schroder gave his honest take on the NBA trade deadline. According to Schroder, the annual event is comparable to modern-day slavery in that the players have so little control over their destiny.
“It’s like modern slavery. It’s modern slavery at the end of the day. Everybody can decide where you’re going, even if you have a contract. Yeah, of course, we make a lot of money and we can feed our families, but at the end of the day if they say, ‘You’re not coming to work tomorrow, you’re going over there,’ they can decide that. They got to change that a little bit.”
The NBA trade deadline can often come with some major life changes for the players involved. While many teams see it as an opportunity to make final roster tweaks, players experience a whole different side of things that often go unnoticed.
This year, the whole league was in shock when Luka Doncic (previously deemed untouchable) was suddenly traded to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christe, and a future first-round pick. It was the ultimate inditement against Luka’s work ethic and sent a message to the league that no player is above the culture of the team.
Of course, fans weren’t buying. Schroder’s “slavery” comparison given that he’s still getting paid millions to play basketball.
“No bro modern slavery is not making millions of dollars to play basketball It’s being in crippling debt working a 9-5,” wrote one fan.
Many people continued to point out Schroder’s inappropriate statement, with one fan going so far as to claim disrespect.
“Slavery when you can quit at any time and go work somewhere else? Disrespecting people that actually had two choices, to be slaves or risk death,” an X user wrote.
Doncic, a 5x All-Star and the face of the franchise, was cast out with no warning and some reports revealed that he was even crying on his way out of Dallas. If somebody like Luka Doncic was traded so suddenly, what does it say about everyone else in the NBA who may not bring nearly as much to the table? In the case of Dennis Schroder, it’s comparable to slavery in that a player has very little control over where they live or work. As someone who has been traded multiple times over his career, Schroder knows the feeling all too well and he’s still getting used to his new surroundings after the latest trade.
While comparing the NBA trade deadline to modern slavery might be hyperbolic, he’s not wrong in saying that no superstar athlete is ever truly safe from the trade block. Besides a no-trade clause (which is rare), there’s nothing to protect the player from a sudden change of scenery and their basketball future is pretty much entirely in the hands of their team’s GM.
Whether it’s a role-player like Schroder or a mega star like Luka Doncic, no player is immune from the chopping block and they have to be ready to pack up and move to a new team on a moment’s notice.
So while many in the NBA condemned Schroder for making such an extreme comparison, it shows the thinking among players that where they live and play is seldom fully in their control.
With many more moves to go by this deadline, things could get crazy as the final hours approach. After the Doncic trade, we could see other teams start to get bolder but only time will tell which players will stay and go.
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